Learning

Ecosystems
An Emerging Praxis
For The Future
Of Education
Learning
Ecosystems
An Emerging Praxis
For The Future
Of Education

Основной вариант логотипа

Learning Ecosystems: An Emerging Praxis
For The Future Of Education

Published by:
Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO & Global Education Futures

Authors
Pavel Luksha
Jessica Spencer-Keyse
Joshua Cubista

Design Team
Daria Frolova
Mona Ebdrup

Cover Photo
link

For more information and to explore opportunities

for collaboration visit Global Education Futures:
www.globaledufutures.org
Abstract
The increasingly complex and interdependent environmental, social, economic,
and cultural challenges facing humanity within our biosphere indicate a clear
need for societal transformation toward viable and life affirming futures. Learning
ecosystems unite diverse stakeholders in collective learning for mutually beneficial
outcomes that lead toward desired futures that work for humanity and all life on
Earth. Through this research the authors explore case studies that reflect diverse
approaches to the co-development of learning ecosystems from around the
world inspired and influenced by biology, ecology, social movements, technology,
cosmology, design, innovation, and systems leadership. This research builds
upon the 2018 Global Education Futures report “Educational Ecosystems for
Societal Transformation”. The insights reflected in this report explore (1) the skills,
knowledge, and ways of being that support life-long and self-directed learning, (2)
approaches to ecosystemic learning, and (3) how educational systems can support
collective flourishing, shifting our global society toward long-term resilience and
thriving. Learning ecosystems are emerging as an interdisciplinary response to
the increasing complexity of the 21st century. At a time in which humanity is
changing the very trajectory of evolution on Earth, learning ecosystems offer a
praxis for the future of education that can profoundly shift the way we learn and
shape our future together.
Note To Readers: 2020: A Time of Unveiling

We hope this note finds you, your family, and your
communities as healthy and strong as can be in
a time of crisis and massive change around the
world. The research and writing of this report was
completed in January 2020. However, we are now
at a bifurcation point where the character of global
civilization is in flux. We are in a time of awakening
to the depth and breadth of the complex, systemic,
and interconnected challenges facing humanity, such
as truly reckoning and addressing structural violence
and racism, a global pandemic, our climate crisis,
mass extinction and biodiversity loss, and global
political, social, and economic injustice. As adrienne
maree brown suggests “Things are not getting
worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold
each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.”1
For thousands of years our human legacy has been
shaped by the colonization of peoples and places
causing historical, intergenerational, and current day
harm toward fellow humans and the ecologies we
call home. Colonialism continues, generation upon
generation, inflicting harm to this day. Our modern
human systems have been built upon the legacy of
our shared past. In 2020, people are globally waking
up to and revolting against the systemic violence,
inequity, and injustice that our systems produce.
While the statues and systemic structures that have
glorified horrific choices are being toppled, primarily
our political, military, economic, health, and educa-
tional systems are largely stuck in patterns that
reinforce the very suffering many around the world
seek to heal. It is time to radically re-imagine how
we co-create new systems that reflect our most
cherished values and support the emancipation of all
people and life on Earth.
Furthermore, in 2020 COVID-19 reached all continents
but Antarctica, sufficiently contagious and deadly to
be recognized as the worst pandemic in 100 years.
While the pandemic was not a surprise to epidemiol-
ogists, futurists, and wisdom keepers who have been
aware of this kind of threat for years2, as a society,
in the face of such rapid change, we are being forced
to question the status quo of our current societal
structures and the trajectory of our future on Earth.
Furthermore, as it relates to education, due to the
pandemic in early 2020, within a month and a half,
the world stopped going to schools and universities.
By mid-April, over 1.7 billion learners were staying at
home; this equals 90% of all enrolled learners in the
world3. The majority of learners and families strug-
gled toward various forms of online learning. This
shift rocked educational systems and many of the
underlying structural challenges within human systems
were magnified during the crisis. Although it is too
early to anticipate the shape that the education sector
will take in the future, some indicators of change are
already visible: A) online & EdTech are here to stay4,
B) new curriculum for changing realities is required5,
C) we need human-centred approaches to developing
learning pathways6, D) multi-stakeholder partnerships
are on the rise7, and E) we need justice-led practices
informing the evolution of educational systems8.
Around the world there are learners, families, commu-
nities, and multi-stakeholder collaboratives who are
creating alternatives for how we may learn together
now and in the future. In a time of crisis we hope
that the pioneers of the perspectives and practices
featured in this report support all people and our
Earth in healing and moving toward thriving together.

1
http://adriennemareebrown.net/2017/02/03/living-through-the-unveiling/
2
E.g. Millennium Project work: http://107.22.164.43/millennium/Global_Challenges/chall-08.html
3
Derived from https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse (accessed April 14, 2020)
4
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/4-ways-covid-19-education-future-generations/
5
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/covid19-great-economic-mismatch-by-dennis-j-snower-2020-04
6
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55679/four-core-priorities-for-trauma-informed-distance-learning
7
https://www.4sd.info/covid-19-narratives/14-march-2020-covid-19-narrative-four/
8
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed.html?id=oKQMBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
 Foreword

Preface: Learning Together

Introduction: The Future of Learning 1

1. 1.1 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities 2

11
1.2 The Future of Education
1.3 Why Ecosystemic Transitions 24

The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems 35

2. and Emerging Definitions

36
2.1 Learning From Ecosystems
2.2 Changing Forms: Defining Learning Ecosystems 44
2.3 Purpose of Learning Ecosystems 56

Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning 71

3. 3.1 Enablers
3.2 Hindrances
72
80

Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning 87

4. 4.1 Ecosystem Thrivalists 88

4.2 Weaving a Web of Relationships 97
4.3 Gardening Ecosystems 103
4.4 Ecosystem Acceleration 108
4.5 Ecosystem Lifecycles 112

Rising Momentum 117

5. 5.1 Emerging Principles for Learning Ecosystems 118

5.2 Co-creating the Practice of Learning Ecosystems 121
5.3 Final Reflections 123

Afterword 125

About the Authors 130

Gratitudes 134

Appendix 136
Case Study Profiles 136
PPP Mapping 149
CORE Mapping 151

How can we build a culture that facilitates learning, How

7
Foreword
By Andreas Schleicher,
Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General
at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
How can we build a culture that
facilitates learning, unlearning and
re-learning throughout life?
Tomorrow’s learning systems will need to
help learners to think for themselves and join
others, with empathy, in work and citizenship.
They need to help learners develop a strong
sense of right and wrong, a sensitivity to the
claims that others make on us, and a grasp of
the limits on individual and collective action.
At work, at home and in the community, people
will need a deep understanding of how others
live, in different cultures and traditions, and
how others think, whether as scientists or
artists. And whatever tasks machines may be
taking over from humans at work, the demands
on our knowledge and skills to contribute
meaningfully to social and civic life will keep
rising.
The growing complexity of modern living,
for individuals, communities and societies,
suggests that the solutions to our problems will
also be complex: in a structurally imbalanced
world, the imperative of reconciling diverse
perspectives and interests, in local settings
with often global implications, will require
people to become adept in handling tensions,
dilemmas and trade-offs. Striking a balance
between competing demands — equity and
freedom, autonomy and community, innovation
and continuity, efficiency and democratic
process — will rarely lead to an either/or
choice or even a single solution. Individuals will
need to think in a more integrated way that
recognises interconnections. Empathy, adapt-
ability and trust are underpinning this.
Creativity in problem solving requires the
capacity to consider the future consequences
of one’s actions, evaluate risk and reward,
and assume accountability for the products of
one’s work. This suggests a sense of respon-
sibility, and of moral and intellectual maturity,
with which we can reflect upon and evaluate
our actions in the light of experiences and
personal and societal goals.
The conventional approach in education is
often to break problems down into manageable
bits and pieces and then to teach learners
how to solve these bits and pieces. But
modern societies create value by synthesising
different fields of knowledge, making connec-
tions between ideas that previously seemed
unrelated. That requires being familiar with
and receptive to knowledge in other fields. In
today’s education systems, students typically
learn individually and at the end of the school
year, we certify their individual achieve-
ments. But the more interdependent the world
becomes, the more we need great collabo-
rators and orchestrators. Innovation is rarely
the product of individuals working in isolation,
but rather an outcome of how we mobilise,
share and integrate knowledge. The well-being
of societies depends increasingly on people’s
capacity to take collective action.

Learning systems therefore need to become
better at helping students learn to develop
an awareness of the pluralism of modern
life. That means teaching and rewarding
collaboration as well as individual academic
achievement, enabling students both to think
for themselves, and to act for and with others.
The challenge is that developing these
cognitive, social and emotional capabil-
ities requires a very different approach to
learning and teaching and a different calibre
of teachers. The challenge is to make teaching
a profession of advanced knowledge workers
who work with a high level of professional
autonomy and within a collaborative culture.
But such people will not work as exchangeable
widgets in education systems that rely mainly
on administrative forms of accountability, and
bureaucratic command-and-control systems
to direct their work. Modern learning systems
need to transform: the past was about
received wisdom; the future is about user-gen-
erated wisdom. Instruction in the past was
subject-based; instruction in the future needs
to be more project-based, building experiences
that help students think across the boundaries
of subject-matter disciplines. The past was
hierarchical; the future is collaborative, recog-
nising both teachers and students as co-cre-
ators.
In the past, different students were taught
in similar ways. Now learning systems need
to embrace diversity with differentiated
approaches to learning. The goals of the past
were standardisation and compliance, with
students educated in age cohorts, following
the same standard curriculum, all assessed at
the same time. The future is about building
instruction from students’ passions and
capacities, helping students personalize their
learning and assessments in ways that foster
engagement and talent. It’s about encouraging
students to be ingenious.
Foreword
Learning systems need to better recognise
that individuals learn differently, and in
different ways at different stages of their lives.
They need to create new ways of providing
education that take learning to the learner and
that are most conducive to students’ progress.
Learning is not a place, but an activity. Future
learning systems need to use the potential of
technologies to liberate learning from past
conventions and connect learners in new and
powerful ways, with sources of knowledge,
with innovative applications and with one
another. The past was divided  —  with
teachers and content divided by subjects
and students separated by expectations of
their future career prospects; with schools
designed to keep students inside, and the
rest of the world outside; with a lack of
engagement with families and a reluctance to
partner with other schools. The future needs
to be integrated — with an emphasis on the
inter-relation of subjects and the integration
of students. It also needs to be connected, so
that learning is closely related to real-world
contexts and contemporary issues, and open
to the rich resources in communities. Effective
learning environments are constantly creating
synergies and finding new ways to enhance
professional, social and cultural capital with
others. They do that with families and commu-
nities, with higher education, with businesses,
and especially with other learning environ-
ments.
Now, these things are easy to say, hard to do.
This is where the publication of this report
makes such a difference. It not only develops
a coherent framework for future-oriented
learning ecosystems that can enable and
facilitate a lifelong and lifewide learning
culture — it also illustrates how designers,
connectors, storytellers and sensemakers can
implement this framework successfully.
Preface: Learning
Together
Humanity in the 21st century is facing unprec-
edented opportunities and existential chal-
lenges unique in the history of our species.
While each generation preceding us had their
own great challenges, we are in the midst of
a “perfect storm” of exponential technological
and digital transformation, ecological crisis,
socio-economic flux, and intergenerational
culture clashes whilst increasingly holding
the power to effect change on a global scale.
We are now faced with an opportunity that is
nothing less than the determining of the evolu-
tionary trajectory of both our species and life
on Earth. In our ever increasingly intercon-
nected world, many of the choices humanity is
making as a species is jeopardizing life as we
know it. These challenges, however, underscore
hidden opportunities of our time in history;
the immense pressures we are facing and the
strain we are placing upon the biosphere can
help us understand the life support systems
upon which all life depends and take action in
life affirming ways today, for our future, and
the future of generations to come.
In educational systems today, as Tom Hierck
succinctly phrases, “we have 21st century
students being instructed by 20th century
adults using 19th century pedagogy and tools
on an 18th century school calendar.”1 Educa-
tional systems, as systems in general, oft
function to preserve the status quo keeping
them largely similar in design and function to
our past rather than our future. Whilst many
inspiring and influential pedagogists across the
ages have provided us with guiding lights and
insights on their commitment to understanding
how and why we learn, on a mass scale it has
proven difficult to ‘measure’ the implications
of human learning on our biosphere. Conse-
quently, we have developed many relatively
‘straightforward’ measured outcomes in the
format of quantitative test scores. However, in
an increasingly automated and digital society
our own unique human skills such as creativity,
empathy, and adaptability are all of increasing
value and are not reflected in these previous
‘measurements’ that are largely based upon
industrial and assembly line learning.
In the face of many entrenched dynamics in
traditional education systems we are also
seeing the rise of various future focused and
holistic learning approaches dedicated to fore-
sight, exploratory and anticipatory methods
which consider the whole person, complex
challenges, and opportunities for collaborative
learning. This then suggests that we may be
at a turning point where education systems
are ripe for a shift toward being shaped by
the future rather than our past. This shift will
require us as learners and educators to culti-
vate a commitment to honoring the past while
dedicating our best efforts to longer-term,
sustainable approaches of inquiry, learning,
and leadership that address the incredible
challenges we face.
In response to the clear need for societal
transformation toward viable futures, learning
ecosystems are emerging as a practice of
uniting diverse stakeholders in collective
learning for mutually beneficial outcomes.
This includes developing our collective intelli-
gence to create collective impact with diverse
stakeholders. Ecosystemic approaches are
emerging across many sectors and disciplines
as a natural response to increasing complexity,
a way of organizing relationships and activities
that go beyond institutional or societal silos.
This shift in the context of education requires
an evolution in our approaches to learning
at all levels from birth to adult and elder-
hood. This report features emerging practices
dedicated to the co-development of learning
ecosystems and builds upon the work of the
2018 Global Education Futures (GEF) report
“Educational Ecosystems for Societal Trans-

formation” a result of GEF’s global education
forums from 2014-2017. This work engaged
over 500 leaders from 50 countries who were
brought together to explore the future of
education and how learning can be a leverage
point for creating thriving futures for all.
The goal of this work is to illuminate how
learning ecosystems can be a new horizon
for evolving educational systems by show-
casing (1) what skills, knowledge and ways
of being will help children, adults, and elders
lead fulfilling and thriving lives, (2) why
ecosystemic cultural practices, organisation
processes, resources and execution can serve
individuals and communities in their learning
journeys throughout their whole lives, and (3)
how educational systems can support human
flourishing that will also transform our global
society toward long-term resilience and
thriving for humanity and the biosphere. This
report suggests that holistic and life affirming
learning ecosystems offer us optimal path-
ways to meaningfully engage in this complex
and necessary inquiry.
The research that forms the foundation
for this report explores the emergence of
learning ecosystems as shaped by those who
are leading the development of this practice
around the world. This report features the
insights from nearly 40 ecosystem leaders
across the spectrum of education systems.
The field of learning ecosystems is nascent
and as such the body of research is only
beginning to grow. The qualitative perspec-
tives and insights from the leaders who were
engaged through this research brought this
report beyond what a purely quantitative data
analysis may have provided. Whilst the exam-
ples of developing ecosystems in this report
are by no means exhaustive, it does feature a
wide array of cases that are at various stages
of development, from a number of different
countries, and diverse approaches to ecosys-
temic learning.
1
https://www.tomhierck.com/2014/11/11/what-is-the-value-added-in-schools-today/
Preface: Learning Together
Contributors draw upon normative (the rules
that you are supposed to follow vs. what could
be done) definitions of ecosystems (explored
in section 2.1 and 2.2) as guidelines, inves-
tigating how different sectors and disciplines
use the term ecosystems as it relates to educa-
tion and learning today. Normative definitions,
including exploring the conditions of what
learning ecosystems are, and are not, were
identified to help clarify which case studies to
include in this research. Contributors (learning
ecosystem leaders and their projects) were
selected for interviews based upon demon-
strated commitment to 1) intentionally inte-
grating learning solutions and/or experiences
for positive impact into their educational
practices and, 2) engaging and organising
in collaborative relationships with a diverse
set of stakeholders both within and outside
of academia. The perspectives represented
in this report includes various approaches to
A) organising education for lifelong learning
pathways and, B) aligning learning processes
with other domains, e.g. technological or
social innovations. Various learning ecosys-
tems featured in this research follow various
types of dynamics, such as:
Ecosystems that create conditions
for social or cultural innovation and
development (Social Innovation Canada
Ecosystem represented by Joshua Cubista,
The Evolutionary Learning Ecosystem
initiative of the Metta Learning project
in Argentina, represented by Alexander
Laszlo, Ashoka represented by Laura Hay,
ASCD as represented by Sean Slade, WISE
represented by Zineb Mouhyi, Metaversity
represented by Alena Surikova, Forum for
the Future represented by Daniel Ford,
Buckminster Fuller Institute represented
by David McConville & Kurt Przybilla)
Preface: Learning Together
Ecosystems that create conditions
for increased just and fair opportu-
nities in circumstances of gender,
economic, and ethnical inequality
(Dream a Dream represented by Vishal
Talreja, MI Sangre Foundation represented
by Catalina Cockduque, TAPP Foundation
represented by Gaby Arenas, Imagination
Afrika represented by Karima Grant, Fair
Education Alliance represented by Gina
Cicerone)
Ecosystems that support technolog-
ical innovations and development
of teams of technological entrepre-
neurs and developers (NMITE repre-
sented by Michael Stevenson, LenPoli-
grafMash represented by Kirill Soloveychik,
AkademPark represented by Levan Tatu-
nashvili)
Ecosystems that become a layer of
urban civic development and expand
citizen opportunities for learning
and wellbeing (Cities of Learning at the
RSA represented by Rosie Clayton, LEGO
Foundation represented by Halima Begum,
Educaio360 represented by Ismael Palacin,
CommunityShare represented by Joshua
Schachter, Enrol Yourself represented by
Zahra Davidson, LearnLife represented by
Stephen Harris, The Weaving Lab repre-
sented by Ross Hall, Redes De Tutoria
represented by Gabriel Camara, Autens
represented by Lene Jensby)
Ecosystems that support regenera-
tive economies in connection with
respective bioregional ecosystems
(OPEPA represented by Luis Camargo,
Cultural Evolution Lab represented by Joe
Brewer, UMA represented by Victoria Haro)
Additionally, a set of stakeholders intention-
ally working to deepen knowledge on learning
ecosystems were engaged to contribute to
this research. These include groups such
as the Innovation Unit, Global Education
Leaders Partnership, Forum for the Future,
KnowledgeWorks Foundation and the Univer-
sity of Cambridge. Furthermore, the co-au-
thors of this report have convened a number
of ecosystem acceleration programs and
ecosystem learning initiatives that add to
the perspectives outlined throughout. These
programs, conducted with and by actual and
emerging ecosystemic leaders, served as labo-
ratories for co-developing and verifying many
frameworks presented in this report. More
details on some of this work can be found in
Section 4.4. Contributions were initially exam-
ined collectively through thematic analysis
(drawing out themes) to examine patterns and
gain new insights from those in the field on the
emergence of learning ecosystems in various
contexts.
This research explores 1) how practitioners
and leaders are defining educational or
learning ecosystems, 2) the motivations
inspiring the creation of learning ecosystems,
3) the perceived purpose of learning ecosys-
tems, and 4) enablers and hindrances for the
conditions of learning ecosystems to grow.
Across these areas of interest it has been
identified that relationships are particularly
integral to what defines and shapes a learning
ecosystem, therefore the types of relationships
and collaborations supportive to a flourishing
learning ecosystem we explored as well as the
roles necessary for ecosystemic learning and
the leadership required for learning ecosys-
tems to thrive.
As with all research this work inevitability has
its limitations. The case studies and inter-
viewees included in this report (whilst span-
ning a variety of countries and continents) do
not include as many perspectives from Asia
and Africa as it does in Europe, North America,
and South America. In general, this report pres-
ents a western ‘scientific’ reflection upon the
future of education and the emerging practice
of learning ecosystems. The co-authors also
 Preface: Learning Together

bring their specific biases to this work shaped

by past experiences, places of origin (Russia, Signposting
the UK and Canada), and the educational and
cultural systems that continue to influence this Interested in understanding more deeply the
work. Furthermore, while this report reflects a major challenges of today?
potential trajectory for the future of learning, → Section 1
many of the interviewees and co-authors alike (page 1)
are working within the very siloed, industrial
education systems this work seeks to shift. An Interested in our summary of Learning
even greater range of representation was not Ecosystems in a short poster format?
possible mostly due to the timeframe within → Appendix, section 2
which this research was conducted and limita- (page 149)
tion of available resources. Further research is
needed to include more diverse voices including Interested in tools for a Learning Ecosystem
indigenous Elders, leaders, and educators, workshop?
artists and makers, and cultural creatives → Appendix 3 and 4
across a broader spectrum of contexts such
as the social justice movement, ecovillages, Interested in understanding the definitions
charter schools, the human potential move- and purposes of ecosystems?
ment, and the knowledge economy at-large. → Section 2.2 and 2.3
Your feedback, insight, and collaboration in (page 44-56)
shaping where this research goes from here
would be greatly welcomed and appreciated. Interested in what the skills of an Ecosystem
Please feel free to propose future research Thrivalist are?
opportunities and initiatives to expand the → Section 4.1
scope of this work. (page 88)

This report is intended to engage readers,

scholars, and practitioners in the continued
exploration of how learning ecosystems may
serve as an emerging praxis for the future of
education. This work reflects a shift in lead-
ership from industrial to ecosystemic, and intentional relationships. Section 4.5 of this
learning from modeling assembly-lines to report will go on to show the lifecycle of an
living systems. This shift requires an evolu- ecosystem based on current emerging prac-
tion in strategy, and the engagement of tices, as well as how to accelerate the success
multi-stakeholders in building capacities as of ecosystemic learning. We conclude in section
ecosystem thrivalists (see section 4.2 for a 5.2 and 5.3 with reflections upon our global
definition). This report features diverse ways education futures and exploring how you can
in which contributors both perceive and are co-create and engage in the rising momentum
working toward shaping the future of learning of this work through guiding principles and
through ecosystemic approaches, and invites practices that serve personal, place-based and
education leaders to become gardeners of planetary learning ecosystems.
learning ecosystems disrupting the status quo
and weavers to co-create powerful collab-
orations that support the self-organization
of ecosystem actors into mutually beneficial
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

14
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

1
Introduction:
The Future
of Learning

1
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
1.1
21st Century
Challenges and
Opportunities
We are living in a time when the effects of accel-
erating complex change is having a profound
impact on the world we live in both globally
and locally. As stated above, we may be living
through one of the most dynamic times in
history for humankind. The pressures created
by some of these dynamics are massive and
need to be addressed urgently:
(Hyper)connectivity
There are over 4 billion users of internet
and nearly 3 billion people that own smart-
phones, spending on average more than 6
hours a day online2. Over the last decades,
the world has become woven into a global
network of information and social media. We
are probably the only species in a billion years
of history of life instantly connected at the
planetary scale. Some of the dominant social
structures that have been guiding our civili-
zation in past centuries, such as governments,
finance, education, religion, are expected to be
“dissolved” and transformed by the fact that
we are globally connected, and new struc-
tures of governance will emerge. This creates
opportunities beyond our imagination but are
also deeply in conflict with how our brains
2
https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
https://techjury.net/stats-about/smartphone-usage/#gref
https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/02/internet-users-spend-more-than-a-quarter-of-their-lives-online.html
3
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674363366
2
and cultures evolved over millennia, serving
our need to live in small and isolated commu-
nities of a few dozen to a few hundred people3.
In today’s world, we are facing epidemics of
loneliness both in urban and rural areas that
information overload and post-truth social
media have divisively exacerbated, while
hyperconnectivity has paradoxically increased
feelings of isolation. Additionally, the possi-
bility for expanded patterns of immobili-
zation for certain individuals and groups, can
ultimately, for example, constrain democracy,
create inequalities, and support neoliberalism.4
Ultimately, this global network can bring us
extreme connectedness and extreme disunity.
We should look to challenge both effects on
our “humanness”.
Automation and Industry 4.0
There has been a wave of innovation in the
digital sector, from new materials to robotics,
which have the potential to disrupt every
aspect of the global economy. One of the
greatest unfolding impacts is the transfor-
mation of the world of work, with nearly 50%
of global workplaces jeopardized in the next
15-20 years, and currently without adequate
replacement. In the next couple of decades,
continuing development of artificial intelli-
gence technologies is expected to lead to
the rise of smart machines of comparable
or greater capacity than the human brain.
The threat is also that not only are machines
potentially going to be faster and smarter, but
they “think” differently.5 The prospects of such
developments are outstanding, but so are the
risks. As a consequence, currently, the rise of
“unfriendly” artificial general intelligence is
considered as one of the main future threats
for our civilization.6
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

High Risk/High Potential Threats of Planetary

Technologies
Apart from artificial intelligence, a plethora
of promising but risky technologies are being
developed by researchers around the globe7.
Nuclear energy has been one of the first such
technologies in the middle of 20th century,
but there are many technologies currently
being developed that have an even greater
transformative and destructive capacity.
In the life sciences, genome manipulations
have become commonplace, and a recently
discovered CRISPR* process opens the
pathway to changing the genome of already
developed organisms8. In material sciences,
the advance of nanotechnology and the
possible development of molecular machines
creates opportunities for manipulating matter
at the atomic level9. These technologies, as
they become widespread, can transform the
world at the scale unseen, giving our species
a capacity to directly operate the foundations
of the material world. These technologies may
improve our collective wellbeing and act to the
benefit of all life but they can also be a tool for
its destruction.
Collapse
Industrial civilization was in some regards
a beautiful invention that has taken billions
of people out of poverty, hunger, and many
diseases. It enabled us humans to proliferate
and multiply, with the sharp increase of global
human population in a short span of time,
growing nearly six times over the last century
and a half. The need to feed these billions,
the rising standard of living, and the careless
attitude to the challenges of “planetary
boundaries”10 have all lead to the destruction
of natural ecosystems and the planetary
systems at a scale unseen. One of several
strong symptoms of this global dynamic is
the climate crisis, an abnormal rise of the
average temperature and the composition of
Earth’s atmosphere. Coupled with that, human
activity has led to accelerated biosphere die
out, with many scholars suggesting that we
are entering a period of the sixth extinction of
life on the planet11. There is a high probability
that human beings will not be able to cope
with these challenging dynamics. Unless the
course of our civilization is changed in the next
decades, we may not survive beyond the 21st
century12. In this demise, it’s also important to
note that the effects of climate change also
impacts those in the Global South, the most
impoverished with least access to education
and resources, the hardest113. Accordingly,
the search for new ways of living has begun
that will become sustainable and regenerative

4
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/risk-and-hyperconnectivity-9780199375509?cc=ro&lang=en&
5
https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/technology/artificial-intelligence/ai-systems-dealing-with-human-emotions/
6
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1758-5899.12002
7
http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2017/
8
https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/21/new-crispr-tool-has-potential-to-correct-most-disease-causing-dna-glitches/
9
https://www.nature.com/subjects/molecular-machines-and-motors
10
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2015-01-15-planetary-boundaries---an-update.html
11
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Sixth_Extinction.html?id=MOGeAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
12
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291086909_12_Risks_that_threaten_human_civilisation_The_case_for_a_new_risk_category
*
CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found within the genomes of prokaryotic
organisms such as bacteria and archaea.

3
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

in the long-term (including the Sustainable VUCA world

Development Goals approved by the UN), but
so far these efforts do not match the scale of
challenges we are experiencing. We need to
develop our critical perspectives of the world
today, exploring opportunities such as liquid
society14 and networked society15, as well as
how we might develop critical competencies
to manage conflicts of power, and drive our
collective and individual lives towards desired
futures of universal wellbeing.
We witness in response to these pressures a
movement rising around the world questioning
previous concepts and norms drawing us
towards a more holistic way of being. One
of the most alarming characteristics of this
period has been the exponential growth of
mental health issues, a worldwide epidemic
with 10-20% of children and adolescents
experiencing mental disorders, with half of
all mental illnesses arising by the age of 1418.
One in ten teenagers in the UK, for example,
express anxiety about current world affairs19
and the shrinking exposure to nature and
increased screen time also plays its part in the
decline of youth mental wellbeing20. Perhaps,
given the conditions of modern living as previ-
ously discussed, it’s not all that surprising.
Pressures to live within the status quo version
of societal norms are compounded by constant
social media and hourly news relentlessly
bombarding people with doom and gloom,
consumerist values, and divisive narratives21.
As a consequence of these big drivers of change,
the modern world today is increasingly described
using the following acronym VUCA (See Figure 1),
which translates to volatile, uncertain, complex &
ambiguous. A state which ultimately makes it difficult
to predict specific or desired outcomes as a result
of an increasingly interconnected, ‘globalised’ world.
In the words of Donella Meadows “The world is a
complex, interconnected, finite, ecological-social-psy-
chological-economic system. We treat it as if it were
not, as if it were divisible, separable, simple, and
infinite. Our persistent, intractable, global problems
arise directly from this mismatch”16.
There is an increasing recognition that young
people in many places around the world aren’t
being taught how to navigate the VUCA maze
in a healthy, sustainable way that they value.
In a new report from World Skills we learn
that only 20% of young people (from 15,000
reponsdents in 19 different countries) value
their education22 and according to the Every
Child to Flourish research report, 83% of youth
feel they are not prepared to live in the world
today. They are particularly alarmed at the
lack of focus and attention paid to their own
health, responding with comments like “I think
my mental health is the most important thing.
If I learn a lot, and my mental health is not
good, I still won’t be happy23.” It seems that
their parents agree, as we also witness an
increasing number of parents strive for alter-

13
https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
14
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Liquid_Modernity.html?id=xZ0RAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_
esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
15
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Rise_of_the_Network_Society.html?id=FihjywtjTdUC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
16
http://donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Whole-Earth-Models-and-Systems.pdf
17
https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you
18
https://www.who.int/mental_health/maternal-child/child_adolescent/en/
19
https://stem4.org.uk/stem4-survey-reveals-childrens-parents-concerns-mental-health/
20
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6104990/
21
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30406005
22
https://worldskills.org/what/projects/youth-voice/
23
https://hundred.org/en/research
24
https://www.educationnext.org/home-schooling-goes-mainstream/

4

Complexity
Characteristics:The situation has
many interconnected parts and variables.
Some information is available or can be
+
predicted, but the volume or nature of it
can be overwhelming to process.
How much do you know about the situation
Example: You are doing business in
many countries, all with unique regulatory
environments, tariffs, and cultural values.
Approach: Restructure, bring on
or develop specialists, and build up
resources adequate to address the
Ambiguity
-
Characteristics: Casual relationships
are completely unclear. No precedents
exist; you face “unknown unknowns.”
Example: You decide to move into
immature or emerging markets or to
launch products outside your core compe-
tencies.
Approach: Experiment. Understanding
cause and effect requires generating
hypotheses and testing them. Design your
experiments so that lessons learned can
be broadly applied.
- How well can you predict results of your action
Figure 1. Definition of VUCA17
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
Volatility
Characteristics:The challenge is
unexpected or unstable and may be of
unknown duration, but it’s not necessarily
hard to understand; knowledge about it is
often available.
Example: Prices fluctuate after a natural
disaster takes a supplier off-line.
Approach: Build in slack and devote
resources to preparedness - for instance,
stockpile inventory or overbuy talent.
These steps are typically expensive; your
investment should match the risk.
Uncertainty
Characteristics: Despite a lack of other
information, the event’s basic cause and
effect are known. Change is possible but
not a given.
Example: A competitor’s pending product
launch muddies the future of the business
and the market.
Approach: Invest in information - collect,
interpret and share it. This works best in
conjunction with structural changes, such
as adding information analysis networks,
that can reduce ongoing uncertainty.
+
5
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
natives, with many choosing to educate their
children at home predominantly due to concern
for their child’s wellbeing24. They are concerned
that their children are unhappy at school and
finding mainstream schooling unmotivating
and uninspiring, consequently leading to a rise
in parent-led establishment of schools. Acton
Academy for example, rely on the approach of
only allowing new schools to be established if
the founder also sends their own child there25.
Holistic education, of which mindfulness is a
subset, has been growing rapidly in response
to the above, and the evidence to support
its usefulness in all fields has grown as well.
American Mindfulness Research Association
(AMRA), for example, has now chronicled more
than 3700 studies published on mindfulness,
reflecting an exponential rise from 0 publica-
tions in 1980 to 690 in 2016 and 692 in 201726.
Operating within a VUCA context we witness a
desperation to understand how our experiences
and environments can foster better opportu-
nities for wellbeing. Many mainstream schools
try to respond to this crisis with mindful-
ness-based programs, such as the UK based
MindUP28, Indian based SMILES27 and Australia
launched Smiling Mind29. When embraced, as
noted by Bronwen Rees, mindfulness has the
capacity to transform the VUCA conditions
into those of opportunity so that:
Complexity Ambiguity
leads to Clarity leads to Agility30
Volatility leads Uncertainty leads
to Vision to Understanding
25
https://www.actonacademy.org/
26
https://www.academia.edu/38824229/Mindfulness_in_and_as_education_A_Map_of_a_Developing_Academic_Discourse_
from_2002_to_2017
27
https://uk.mindup.org/
28
https://www.smilesinlife.org/
29
https://www.smilingmind.com.au/
30
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316781034_The_Use_of_Mindfulness_in_a_Traumatic_VUCA_World
31
https://www.ggs.vic.edu.au/
35
https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2019
6
Yet, whilst these approaches are well-intended
and mindfulness can play a role in alleviating
stress, introducing a one-off program often
only addresses the symptoms of a systemic
problem. Approaches thus become add-ons
where people squeeze time for these moments,
rather than resolving the root cause of the
systemic issues. As a result, we are beginning
to see in response whole school models, as
well as community models, changing with
approaches instilled across the whole culture
at the deeper, fundamental levels, such as
Geelong Grammar School31, developed from
the principles and science of the positive
psychology movement. They have pioneered
a school-wide approach to student and staff
wellbeing known as Positive Education,
sharing and influencing their work with over
1000 communities worldwide.
At the collective and wider planetary scale
we see deep impact from changes in society
today. The World Economic Forum annual
survey explores what are perceived to be
the biggest issues in the world35. The scope
and severity of these issues are apparent,
including a lack of education being the 8th
most critical, inequality at 3rd and climate
change at number 1. This continual perceived
risk and threat is ever present and as we move
beyond analysing the effect at the individual,
micro level we can see the collective impact of
these issues. When we look to other interna-
tional organisations, according to the UN, for
example, there are a great variety of global
issues that represent risks of various magni-
tudes for society. These include elements such
as human health and demography, like AIDS
or ageing, as well as challenges of national
and global governance, such as peacekeeping
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

Learning for the future work

If we look to the world of work, the volatility around
employment is causing deep concern where our jobs
and professional opportunities are now rapidly and
frequently changing. Whereas previous positions
and processes were more predictable, they are now
constantly and rapidly developing and evolving; we
see this in the rise of the sharing (Uber and Airbnb
32
style) economy . As a consequence, self-awareness
and continual development of skills and compe-
tencies are becoming imperative not only for
young people, but for all adults. We are told that
we will be required to evolve from resisting change
to embracing it agilely and adaptively33. We also
personally do not exhibit, in general, the same loyalty
which previously may have been attractive to us.
Instead not only craving, but requiring the freedom
to be adaptive in our working life that makes the
instability worthwhile. We are much more likely to
leave if the culture, leadership or work is unfulfilling
as we expect more horizontal leadership and a
commitment to growth, learning and development
34
at a personal level . There are a lack of models to
explain current jobs and the marketplace which may
be evolving but what we do understand is that there
is, and will continue to be, disruption and a struggle
to get work. An international research alliance on the
future of skills created by WorldSkills Russia aims
to consolidate key understandings and frameworks
that emerge in this field. We witness in response
schools and communities developing programs
such as, Educate!, who tackle youth unemployment
by partnering with schools and governments to
reform what schools teach and how they teach it
so that students in Africa have the skills to attain
further education, overcome gender inequities, start
businesses, get jobs, and drive development in their
communities. They provide, for example, skill based
courses, student business clubs and mentorship and
teacher training.
Foundation for Young Australians is another example
of a systemic effort to help young people develop
skills for the future. They seek to understand the
future of jobs and most demanded skills for the next
decade in Australia, and then turn the knowledge
gained from the research into action, co-designing
programs and events for young people, with young
people in collaboration with educational institutions
and government as well as corporate and philan-
thropic partners.

32
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2Zz2CwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=rise+in+sharing+economy&ots=sJqb-
VaM2-h&sig=WOa1LquijyW8qXmWdjFx_B69REs#v=onepage&q=rise%20in%20sharing%20economy&f=false
33
http://www.globaledufutures.org/images/people/WSdoklad_12_okt_eng-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf
34
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180227-how-the-youngest-generation-is-redefining-work

7
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
or decolonization36. Similar and further lists
have been identified by organisations such
as the Global Challenges Foundation37 and
the Sustainable Development Goals38 set up
by the United United Nations in 2012 which
represent one of the most outward, public
global efforts to recognize these challenges
and to work together to save ourselves and our
planet. However, the coordinated action of the
world’s leading superstructures is a necessary
but not a sufficient solution to the challenges
of our time. Drawing upon extensive research
in previous Global Education Futures reports
and beyond, it seems that we need a decen-
tralized and coordinated effort of many change
leaders that occurs at the global scale. The
critical condition is that a critical connections
of “changemakers” around the world arises
through new forms of education39
“In order for global culture to be
infused with regenerative societal
practices and for new systemic
literacy’s and patterns to take root that
foster “anti-fragility”, these practices
must become massively distributed
skill-sets, mastered by a critical
mass of people within the population
[through] educational prototypes and
learning ecosystems that support
personal, collective and global
39
http://www.dailygood.org/story/1496/it-s-about-critical-connections-not-critical-mass-curtis-ogden/
40
http://www.globaledufutures.org/images/people/GEF_april26-min.pdf
41
https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/
42
https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/media/Bringing-people-together_how-community-action-can-tackle-loneliness-and-social-isolation.
pdf?mtime=20190701084743
43
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-Sri_ZJX2hoC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=ecological+crisis&ots=-gCOJvgg6q&sig=yPQN-
mR6QXpyWg3hlYgI_xKIElDQ#v=onepage&q=ecological%20crisis&f=false
44
https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-about-Complexity-Continuum-Criticism/dp/0984216456
8
In the face of the dynamics and possibilities
we are bombarded by multiple and cumulative
stresses at the individual level leading to
increased levels of stress and burnout41. At
the community level people are increasingly
disconnected from each other and opportunity
gaps are widening42. At the planetary level we
are in a state of ecological and political crisis43.
That said, it is important to note that humanity
made enormous strides by thinking and acting
in analytical, mechanistic and industrial ways.
Over the course of the twentieth century, life
expectancy in the industrial world roughly
doubled, literacy jumped from twenty percent
to over ninety percent and benefits arrived
in the form of products, medicine, commu-
nication, education and entertainment44. Yet
now, regardless of what we have achieved we
witness floundering in the shock of complexity.
We are unprepared to live in an hyper-inter-
connected world, exhausted and trying to
constantly make sense of interdependent
social, ecological, economic, and cultural
dynamics.
In the education space we see a rise of outdated
approaches to learning which is increasingly
making education systems incongruent with
learners needs. Determining, for example, what
emerging generations need to learn when the
skills they develop might become irrelevant,
even just 10-15 years from now is a grand
challenge. Couple this such things as the fear
of biospheric collapse or societal extinction
due to global issues like climate catastrophe
and we see many educators and learners,
families, communities, if not humanity at large
facing an existential crisis that asks nothing
less of us than reimagining how we shape our
future together.

At this unique point in history it is increasingly
apparent that there are many conditions in
which we could live that fit any possible need.
Almost all that we can imagine is accessible to
a huge population of the globe and our world is
brimming with an extreme excess of material
things and data. We are faced with more vital
questions for today’s society: what use can we
make of our reimagining? How effectively and
“futurefully” could we manage this scenario?
What is valuable from possessing or operating
in this way? At the center of many of these
questions the role of education is key. It seems
that we must shift away from concentrating on
only information digesting towards designing
new meaning and solutions, ensuring our
learners have the instruments, processes,
freedom, space and technologies to do so in
the most effective way. This could then provide
a way to access many opportunities, collating,
prototyping and using data in different, organic
and emerging ways. This could support better
goal setting and decision making and finding
meaningful education, which helps learners to
deal with redundancy and develop skills such
as critical thinking and self-regulation.
Yet to do so at the individual level does not
imply that we should be moving to an increasing
model of individualism, quite the opposite.
This reality requires us to be collective-ori-
ented, taking into account everyone’s impact
on the whole system. Collective thrivability is
a question of value-based collective problem
solving and of high-level concurrence, which, in
its turn, requires a new social scenario. When
organising this way we see the formation of
active and responsible communities acting as
a collective entity for the greater good. Daniel
Christian Wahl, regenerative systems designer,
shows us for example that “this insight can
45
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dOSqDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT15&dq=designing+regenerative+cultures&ots=Ci0Q-
5DATZr&sig=6lxf40yIfK67-oSB5VA5ptrL14A#v=onepage&q=designing%20regenerative%20cultures&f=false
46
http://www.topdogteaching.com/
47
https://belonging.berkeley.edu/notesonaculturalstrategy?mc_cid=d2fbc76dd4&mc_eid=bd552e09ab
48
https://www.dfcworld.com/SITE
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
motivate people to assume conscious respon-
sibility for their role as change agents in
the transition towards diverse regenerative
cultures45.” We can see this shift toward shared
responsibility occur when we look to certain
‘innovations’ in education, such as the concept
of Flexible Seating, made popular by teacher/
influencer Kayla Delzer, who’s work highlights
the power of individual change agents’ ability
to influence thousands of teachers at the grass-
roots level46. In this case, rethinking the impor-
tance of the environment on wellbeing and
learning, Kayla’s innovative work is an example
of the power that communities have to shape
knowledge systems that support collective
thriving. Learning how to work together at
this local scale enables us to reconnect with
lost sense of belonging and wellbeing which,
as highlighted above, are and have been in
severe decline47. We can deepen our sense of
purpose and belonging on a lifelong journey of
learning to improve our community. This can
be through our own passion based pursuits for
personal deeper well being and joy, especially
through our artistic crafts and play, as well
as connection towards clear, action oriented
design projects to improve many aspects, like
Design for Change48 who enable children to
feel, imagine, do and share on local projects.
The entire human race has a shared destiny,
and we are all in this together — there is no
separation technologically or via infrastructure
that can isolate us from each other or our
intertwined future. Learning and education
can be a leverage point for us to co-create and
implement pathways towards a sustainable
and regenerative future. It is imperative then,
to avoid mass extinction or global war, that we
evolve our education systems so that we can
learn how to live together in the 21st century
and beyond.
9
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

Learning and education can be a

leverage point for us to co-create
and implement pathways towards a
sustainable and regenerative future.
It is imperative then, to avoid mass
extinction or global war, that we evolve
our education systems so that we can
learn how to live together in the 21st
century and beyond.

10

1.2
The Future of
Education
Existing educational institutions and systems,
more often than not, tend to invest in conven-
tional industrial processes that continue
to reproduce outdated pedagogies that
often deepen inequalities such as structural
racism49-51 a phenomenon clearly evident, for
example, in public school systems enforcing the
school-to-prison pipeline52. These processes
and models can be deeply dehumanizing and
to address many of the global challenges
outlined above we need to find ways to get
back in touch with humanity. Elements then,
like mindfulness, will have a greater change to
organically flourish across humanity. Therefore,
one of the key goals of education is to form
our core of principles and practices to “unlock”
personal and collective humanity. The public
sector, in general, has not enabled this as
they make requirements for defining detailed
rules, standardizing methods, and evidencing
and measuring outcomes, to make school
work as ‘efficient’ as possible, like a well-oiled
machine53. This appears to be done with the
mindset that if people are told exactly what
to do and this work is evaluated with the
same set of standards, then they will comply
and efficiency will improve. In comparison,
the private sector operates almost entirely in
the opposite way, through increasing deregu-
lation riding the invisible hand of the market
49
https://journals.co.za/docserver/fulltext/high_v32_n5_a5.pdf?expires=1574785245&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=C-
C8114926686A33D319FED5321E02981
50
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0091732X16686949?journalCode=rrea
51
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maria_Balarin2/publication/328743543_The_Ungoverned_Education_Market_and_the_Deepening_
of_Socio-economic_School_Segrega-tion_in_Peru/links/5be043b8299bf1124fbbf2c6/The-Ungoverned-Education-Market-and-the-Deep-
ening-of-Socio-economic-School-Segrega-tion-in-Peru.pdf
52
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2013/the-school-to-prison-pipeline
53
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5099692_Standardization_Education
54
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/
55
https://data.oecd.org/united-kingdom.htm
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
to lead to optimal outcomes through compe-
tition. Again though, this economic model is
still largely modelled as if it worked predictably
and controllably, moving inexorably towards
‘equilibrium’ and yet can perpetuate many of
the issues of inequality and social injustices we
have witnessed in capitalist markets. Despite
current crises, these persist as dominant
models even with evidence of failing. For
example, the UK continues to focus on defined
detailed teaching methods and lesson plans,
and increasing measurement and performance
of schools, teachers and pupils but in a wider
ranking is still near the bottom of 24 countries
in relation to literacy and numeracy54. We’re also
seeing a continued rise in inequality with the
UK 28th out of 34 OECD countries in relation
to income inequality, and at the bottom of 37
countries in relation to differences in healthy
eating between rich and poor children55.
It is hardly surprising then that stakeholders
across the world feel that education needs
improvement in a multitude of ways56.
Research exploring Global Perspectives on
Improving Education found 10 major themes,
with an overarching 45 areas that need to
improve, spanning the entirety of educational
systems. The call to improve across the educa-
tional system spectrum was largely deemed
necessary due to the lack of connection and
collaboration between stakeholders leading
to limiting patterns of institutional and
pedagogical silos. In response to these issues,
new approaches to learning and education
are emerging as educational innovation
leaders reimagine learning for the 21st
century. ‘Innovation’ spotters (as coined by
Brookings57) for example, showcase the work
of organisations such as Ashoka58, Harvard59
11
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
and HundrED60 all of which (among others)
are working to bridge the gap between past
education models and future possibilities.
As suggested above, the future of education
will be shaped by the context of the 21st
century in which institutions and commu-
nities alike must wake up to the challenges
of our times. We will need to bridge between
education systems designed primarily for
individual learning and personal benefit to
collective learning and capacity building
to shape our future together and fostering
mutual success while addressing the “wicked
problems” before us. As described by the work
of Rittle61 wicked problems 1) have no defin-
itive formulation. (For example, the problem
of poverty in Texas is grossly similar but
discretely different from poverty in Nairobi, so
no practical characteristics describe “poverty.”)
2) It’s hard, maybe impossible, to measure or
claim success with wicked problems because
they bleed into one another, unlike the bound-
aries of traditional design problems that can
be articulated or defined by single solutions. 3)
Solutions to wicked problems can be only good
or bad, not true or false. There is no idealized
end state to arrive at, and so approaches to
wicked problems should be tractable ways to
improve a situation rather than solve it. 4)
There is no template to follow when tackling a
wicked problem, although history may provide
a guide. Teams that approach wicked problems
must literally make things up as they go along.
5) There is always more than one explanation
for a wicked problem, with the appropri-
ateness of the explanation depending greatly
on the individual perspective of the designer.
6) Every wicked problem is a symptom of
another problem. The interconnected quality
of socio-economic political systems illus-
trates how, for example, a change in education
56
https://hundred.org/en/research (Every Child to Flourish)
57
https://www.brookings.edu/book/leapfrogging-inequality-2/
58
https://www.ashoka.org/en-gb/home-page-keep-unpublished
59
https://globaled.gse.harvard.edu/home
60
https://hundred.org/en#header
61
https://www.wickedproblems.com/1_wicked_problems.php
12
will cause new behavior in nutrition. 7) No
mitigation strategy for a wicked problem has
a definitive scientific test because humans
invented wicked problems and science exists
to understand natural phenomena. 8) Offering
a “solution” to a wicked problem frequently is
a “one shot” design effort because a signif-
icant intervention changes the design space
enough to minimize the ability for trial and
error. 9) Every wicked problem is unique. 10)
Designers attempting to address a wicked
problem must be fully responsible for their
actions. As institutions and communities
continue to understand the nature of the
challenges we face this open the possibility for
education systems to evolve to prepare future
learners and leaders to address these kinds
of challenges and co-create viable visions of
the future together even in the face of ‘wicked
problems’62. Examples of this shift can be seen
in the trend towards developing network-
based ways of organising to address these
challenges. Networks are emerging as collab-
orative and creative sources for innovation,
as well as provide powerful scaling potential
of innovation between multiple stake-
holders. Lydia Dobyns, CEO of the New Tech
Network63, and Tom Vander Ark, Founder of
Getting Smart64 have shown how approaching
education and learning ultimately from a
networked approach increases: 1) capacity
building for educators, 2) innovation through
bundling features and tools, 3) space and
support to experiment, 4) expanded learning
options for young people, and 5) overall school
improvement as a consequence65.
As educational processes evolve, educators
and learners alike are increasingly committed
to building capacities to address wicked
problems connecting learning to positive
human development. There is recognition that
introducing and teaching social/emotional
skills, such as empathy or mindfulness is
not a “one off” endeavor, Instead we need
immersive, ongoing experiences, in various
contexts, to practice and embody empathy or
mindful action; ideally in authentic, social, and

nature-based learning environments66 across
multiple contexts to truly understand what this
means across a lifelong learning journey. This
can be applied to all skills we need and want
to develop. The very nature of what we require
to thrive ultimately requires a new organi-
sation of learning which is not and will not-by
nature of these new competencies — continue
to be only classroom based education. Below
are a set of examples where we can see the
“seeds” of the future of learning beginning to
flourish across various domains of education
and learning:
A. Technology &
Digitalization:
With the rise in technology there has been a
burst of edtech ‘solutions’ developed across
learning and education67, and whilst many
have not have the revolutionary potential of
deepening human connections as of yet, there
is a rising surge in opportunity with technology
presenting many new possibilities.
Knowledge at our Fingertips.
The development of digital technologies has
led to a mass migration of knowledge from
the special and localised, usually situated
within very specific hubs, to an ever increas-
ingly distributed model via the internet. The
distribution shows itself in various forms, from
online libraries, games and structured learning
environments. The emergence of online
newspapers and encyclopedias, webinars and
62
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320866637_Wicked_problems_in_education_What_they_are_and_how_to_write_about_them
63
https://newtechnetwork.org/
64
https://www.gettingsmart.com/
65
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Better+Together%3A+How+to+Leverage+School+Networks+For+Smarter+Personalized+and+Project+Based+Learn-
ing-p-9781119439103
66
https://rutamaestra.santillana.com.co/edicion-22/caminando-hacia-la-educacion-basada-en-la-naturaleza/
67
https://www.financedigest.com/global-report-predicts-edtech-spend-to-reach-252bn-by-2020.html
68
https://www.exploringbytheseat.com/
69
https://octagon.studio/
70
https://www.century.tech/
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
courses have made acquisition of knowledge
accessible to many at any time and place,
creating brand new combinations of learning
in any preferred order. Exploring by the Seat
of Your Pants68, for example, brings science,
exploration, adventure and conservation into
classrooms through free virtual speakers
and field trips. This is a big step away from
what seemed possible before, with artifi-
cially aligned and institutionalised curric-
ulums. With the growth of opportunities, such
as virtual classes and laboratories, as well
as online learning advisors, technology has
enabled different access and practical learning
processes which can be accessed at all ages.
Personalized Educational Technology.
There have been an increasing emergence
in technological possibilities in education
explored, such as Indonesian-based Octagon
Studio69 which provides educators with easy
and inexpensive augmented reality technology
through 4D flashcards. Each card contains
a combination of images and information
exploring different subjects, including animals,
space, dinosaurs and human anatomy. Schools
can also use the cards as a language learning
tool by utilising the multilingual feature, with
fun and engaging lesson plans on how to
integrate this technology into learning. Then,
and opposite approach where the entire
basis of the child’s education is created on
personalised technological platforms, you
have examples such as Century Tech70. When
technologies are applied well, it can allow for
an intentional opportunity for revolutionizing
learning models through flexible, practical,
learner-oriented experiences.
13
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
B. Approaches for the
Emerging Future:
We recognise that content, skills and
approaches to education used previously are
not relevant for an ever-changing world, thus
approaches and pedagogy to learning that
is ‘future fit’ is emerging as a consequence.
Education therefore can shift to become
an organic element of one’s life, integrated
into experiences of work, play, creativity,
family, love, and throughout the entire human
endeavor.
Skills for Adaptation and Mastery.
Our ability to succeed in different contexts
depends on a new set of what has often been
called ‘21st century’ skills, combining ‘soft’ and
‘hard’ skills71. The term ‘soft skills’ developed
to distinguish social/emotional intelligence for
example from from technical skills that tend
to be easier to measure. Whilst the term “soft
skills” is not perhaps ideal phrasing as it can
to some imply ‘lesser’ importance than “hard
skills”, identifying the difference between
the two and the increasing valuing of social/
emotional intelligences and skills has been
an important step in evolving what and how
we learn. Furthermore, as suggested in Global
Education Futures report on Future Skills72, we
can continue to evolve the way we develop
an integral approach to skills development
by using a four-layer skill model that includes
the following levels: context (including, but not
limited to, “hard” skills) skills are developed and
applied in specific context, often using specific
tools, e.g. surgery skills, bicycle riding, video
blogging, or tango dancing; cross-context
skills that can be applied in a larger domain of
social or personal activities, e.g. an ability to
71
http://sttechnology.pbworks.com/f/Dede_%282010%29_Comparing%20Frameworks%20for%2021st%20Century%20Skills.pdf
72
http://www.globaledufutures.org/images/people/WSdoklad_12_okt_eng-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf
73
https://education.muttigrees.org/
74
https://www.bigpicture.org/
14
read & write, time-management or teamwork;
meta skills which are primarily different modes
of operating objects in our mind or in the
physical world, ranging from logical-mathe-
matical to bodily-kinesthetic to interpersonal;
and existential skills that can be universally
applied throughout lifetime and different living
contexts on an individual. These would suffi-
ciently provide learners with the required skills
for adaption and mastery. Mutt-i-grees73 have,
for example, created a social and emotional
learning curriculum that teaches children
essential skills for academic and life success
by exploring the unique characteristics of
shelter dogs. A series of lessons are designed
to help children become resilient, identify their
strengths, skills and talents and areas in which
they can improve. The lessons are presented
in five units: Achieving Awareness, Finding
Feelings, Encouraging Empathy, Cultivating
Cooperation, and Dealing with Decisions. Activ-
ities and readings focus on dogs, and some
schools choose to establish partnerships with
their local animal shelter to give the children
first hand experience of subject matter and
bring the lessons to life.
Facilitation and New Roles.
With new types of curriculum and learning
approaches, this spotlights the necessity
of changing learning environments. Moving
towards value-based, trust-based interactions,
this requires teachers, leaders and other educa-
tional change makers to obtain new skills such
as facilitation, moderation, group dynamics
management and situational leadership. There
are examples of schools using this method-
ology, such as Big Picture Learning74 and High
Tech High75, as well as programs such as The
Weaving Lab who support the personal inner
transformation and professional development
of those looking to improve learning and
education ecosystems worldwide. The role of
the educator acting as a skilled facilitator is

also an emerging phenomenon spotted in the
schools mentioned above and many more, as
the pedagogical expertise shifts from content
specific knowledge to human development and
learning sciences76. This approach to teaching
ultimately requires a new form of leadership
and skills in facilitation so there is an emerging
field of training and capacity building to
support this shift, for example Stanford Design
School co-developed School Retool77 a profes-
sional development fellowship that helps
school leaders redesign school culture through
small, scrappy experiments called hacks, built
on research-based practices intending to lead
to deeper learning, to develop students for
life in the real world. Shadow a Student78 is
an example of one of these small hacks which
could lead to big changes where teachers go
on a journey to bring educators together to
empathize with their students and take new
kinds of action at their school through their
eyes.
Project-Based Pathways.
A project has scope of work, resource, and
planning activity to execute and manage
resources to get the desired results. In the
present world full of ever increasing complexity,
project-based learning is preparing students to
solve real world problems, promoted by many
groups including ASCD79. It’s an approach to
learning that focuses on gaining knowledge
and skills by working for an extended period of
time to investigate and respond to a question,
problem or challenge through learning by doing
and authentic experiences. As an increasingly
popular approach to learning, the Buck Institute
for Education80 is a non-profit organization
that creates, gathers, and shares high-quality
project-based learning (PBL) instructional
practices and products and provides highly
75
https://www.hightechhigh.org/
76
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1744-6198.1999.tb00232.x
77
https://schoolretool.org/
78
https://www.shadowastudent.org/
79
http://www.ascd.org/Default.aspx
80
https://www.pblworks.org/
81
https://hundred.org/en/research (Spotlight on Sustainability)
82
https://greenhopefoundation.wixsite.com/greenhope
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
effective services to teachers, schools,
and districts.” The site includes many free
resources and tools, and supports a community
of educators interested in PBL-related issues.
Sustainability and Regeneration
Oriented Education.
It is no longer adequate that our children and
communities know about sustainability issues;
in order to implement change they need to be
actively behaving in a way that tackles them.
Developments in sustainability in education
are moving towards action-based learning.
Mirrored with the shift from ‘knowing’ to
‘doing’ reflected in the terminology shift from
Environmental Education to Sustainability in
Education, the forefront of work focuses on
learning for impacting social change through
action-competence. Influencing change
requires a multi-stakeholder approach very
directly in this learning space and community
engagement is a huge contributing factor,
not only educating children, but engaging
with teachers, community members, parents,
and local businesses to support changes in
perception, understanding and ultimately
behaviour81. An example of this would be the
Green Hope Foundation82, a youth organisation
working on Education for Sustainable Devel-
opment, children’s rights and environmental
protection by empowering young people and
helping to build effective partnerships with
all stakeholders of civil society. They engage
and educate youth and adults alike, through
their interactive workshops and conferences
involving schools, communities and corporates
and complement these with ground level action
campaigns which target the implementation
of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
15
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
C. Rise of Learner Centered
Education:
Presently, the process of education can
metaphorically be framed as a “rocket” model.
The educational system creates a “launch
pad” for an individual throughout school and
university years, and “shoots” an individual into
professional life, after which individuals “land”
into retirement a few decades later. With the
increased longevity, higher levels of unpre-
dictability of the future, and longer learning
cycles, this model becomes obsolete. Learners
themselves need to be able to understand how
they learn, so they are able to be adaptive
in the unlearning and relearning processes
throughout life and have fun doing it!
Self-Guided Lifelong Learning.
A self-guided learner is one able to set goals,
define pace and needs, attract and create
necessary learning resources, and immerse
oneself into a variety of learning experi-
ences, that holistically develop integral capac-
ities and aspects of one’s personality across
the learning lifecycle. It is a shift towards
self-determined learning, shifting from
knowledge hoarding to knowledge sharing83.
In the Democratic School of Hadera84 a highly
successful school which has catalysed into an
International Democratic Education movement
over the last 25 years where Israeli children
design and lead their own curriculum. Other
examples of early application of this principle
can be seen in the Reggio Emilia85 network
that advocates that the main purpose of early
education is the self-discovery of ways to
83
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RRwxDfRc894C&oi=fnd&pg=PA75&dq=Bill+Ford+(1997)+heutagogy&ots=BXIq9DlqP-
F&sig=tFzti-EXHpSkwYIUbo0cbXMlhm0#v=onepage&q=Bill%20Ford%20(1997)%20heutagogy&f=false
84
http://www.democratics.org.il/site/index.asp?depart_id=125189&lat=en
85
https://www.reggiochildren.it/identita/reggio-emilia-approach/?lang=en
86
https://www.kaospilot.dk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9sGI5fCg5QIViK3tCh29HwLqEAAYASAAEgLvfPD_BwE
87
http://soul-of-education.org/
16
express oneself. In relation to adult learning
opportunities, Copenhagen based Kaos Pilots86
is a highly innovative blend of a design school
and a business school, where learners seek to
solve world problems through entrepreneurial
and consulting projects they make and learn
methodologies and frameworks throughout.
Holistic Whole Person.
In many classrooms around the world today
children are being taught how to pass exams,
with a focus on content and memorisation
alluding the opportunity to develop holistically.
Holistic education is a philosophy of education
based on the premise that each person finds
identity, meaning, and purpose in life through
connections to the community, to the natural
world, and to humanitarian values such as
compassion and peace. Holistic education aims
to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence
for life and a passionate love of learning. An
example from the systemic level would be the
The International Soul of Education Initiative87,
who connect educational scientists, activists
and experts to redefine, envision and re-design
education from the inside out. It is also an
inquiry into how to bring more wholeness,
wisdom, heart, and human-beingness into
all levels of education. The forest school
movement88 is also deeply linked to devel-
oping holistic education experiences, through
regular, hands on learning experiences in a
woodland style natural environment.
Joy and Play.
With information overload and a rise in work
being inextricably linked within the way we
design our personal life alongside the sophis-
ticated development of the entertainment
industry, we increasingly recognise gaming
and play as a close-to-life, inspiring and

soothing way to get something new. This has
fueled a rise of interactive forms of educa-
tional practices, including debates, quests,
scientific shows and roleplay games. Unlike
gamification which only adds elements of the
game to existing schooling process to make
it more fun — playification revolves around
learning experience and makes it play-cen-
tered. Play (as modelling) is, on the one hand, a
natural way of gaining knowledge by imitating
real life processes, and on the other hand, a
powerful instrument of delivery in social
scenarios. This approach is being advocated
for by many, including the Lego Foundation89,
who dedicate a significant amount of time to
cultivating this aspect of learning. Humani-
tarian Play Labs also bring BRAC’s90 signature
low cost, high quality play-based learning
model to the humanitarian context of the
largest refugee settlement in the world in
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. They integrate
playful learning with child protection, psycho-
social support, and linkages to critical services;
incorporate relevant cultural traditions; and
engage both Rohingya and host communities.
It’s unsurprising to discover then that play
as an experience enables learning to be both
effective and an increasing amount of research
has shown to be a natural and safe approach
developing creativity, imagination and more91
92
. It’s also crucial that our learning environ-
ments for play include access and integration
with the outdoors, Outdoor Classroom Day
is a chance for teachers and children to
experience this and is a step towards showing
how the outdoor environment could be used
more frequently and intentionally for learning
of all ages.
88
https://www.forestschools.com/pages/what-is-forest-school-an-introduction
89
https://www.legofoundation.com/en/why-play/
90
http://www.brac.net/
91
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Randy_White/publication/267374472_Children’s_Outdoor_Play_Learning_Environments_
Returning_to_Nature/links/545141ec0cf2bf864cba8f55.pdf
92
https://clutejournals.com/index.php/TLC/article/view/1871
93
https://www.pps.org/article/indigenous-placemaking-minga
94
https://firstnationspedagogy.com/
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
D. Cultivation of the
Collective:
Collective learning is the ability to share
information so efficiently that the ideas of
individuals can be stored within the collective
memory of communities, accumulate through
generations, and enable us to make new break-
throughs in development and connection to
ourselves, each other and the planet as we are
all interconnected. Yet, this will require well-de-
signed and well-tended community knowledge
gardens. Not only this but we are social beings
and an individual’s social abilities are based
upon the quality of his or her social interactions.
In order to have positive social interactions,
an individual needs to be socially competent
and have strong social learning skills, which
can be learnt through collective learning. It’s
important to note, that as we ultimately are
groups of diverse beings the collective is by no
means one shared model but many approaches
with different emergent theories of change and
individual approaches which add their value to
the whole ecosystem.
Collective Learning Processes and Journeys
can generate and maintain meaningful
collective purposes, identities, and actions
that stimulate co-creation, collaboration and
collective learning. Enabling people to collec-
tively explore, co-create and co-evolve across
disciplines in interesting and stimulating ways
allows us to experience “belonging to something
bigger.” There has been a rise in projects that
connect learners to wider processes to create
with a product or process collectively for the
benefit of that community, traditionally called
17
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
a “minga” in Ecuadorian Quechua93 culture.
Many indigenous communities, for example,
used collaborative learning as a dominant
form of learning, whereby mothers, fathers,
and their children, or members of the tribe
at any age, would collectively get involved
in problem-solving and tale-living94. This is
a learning for new tribal members as well
as for a tribe as a whole. In particular, many
accounts of such learning have been recently
documented for Mayan tribal communities in
Guatemala but there is evidence of similar
patterns of learning from indigenous commu-
nities in Africa, Latin America, South East Asia,
and Oceania. New Zealand has made a consid-
erable effort in adopting Maori tribal learning
models and mashing them up with European
curriculum and pedagogies, to create schools
that employ indigenous collective learning
practices for 21st century education95. Other
collective learning processes, for example,
include collaborative inquiry and communities
of practice as developed by Forum for the
Future in their School for Systems Change96
who are growing a global community of
change agents as our best chance to accel-
erate a transition to a sustainable future.97.98
Then there are collective learning art projects
for local communities, such as Earth Painting99,
This is a practice from Italy created to connect
play and joy to environmental education in
response to the urgency of bringing people
closer to nature by encouraging the exploration
of new interactive links with the Living. It is
a community practice that takes place in an
intergenerational circle and provides experi-
ences ranging from organic Earth Paintings to
Land Art. Tapping into the power of beauty and
wonder allows young people to acquire new
essential tools to emotionally navigate the
waves of this challenging historical moment.
95
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3651309?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
96
https://www.forumforthefuture.org/school-of-system-change
97
https://www.forumforthefuture.org/
98
https://systemic-design.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/The-School-of-System-Change-as-a-system-change-endeavour-RSD6-paper.pdf
99
https://earth-painting.com/2019/05/27/la-meraviglia-del-cerchio-intergenerazionale-il-mondo-che-vorremmo-e-che-costruiremo-insieme/
100
https://www.trixandtrax.com/
101
https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html
102
https://www.nowwhat2019.com/
18
This leads to a more holistic and ecosophical
view of the world, connecting to ancestral
wisdom in a contemporary way.
Peer-to-Peer.
When students have an opportunity to learn
together it develops their collaboration and
organisational skills, as well as deepening
their opportunity to learn. Venezuela and
Chile based organisation Trix and Trax100 help
students discover and develop their passions
and skills through arts, music, dance, sports
and peer learning. A combination of values,
live events, superheroes and technology use
recorded performances and a social media
platform for connection. The program works
to transform tacit knowledge of these “Super
Heroes” (peers with particular expertise in
their passion) into a step by step practical
learning methodology to enable them to share
and allow others to discover their passions.
Generative conversations.
There are a wave of initiatives centered on
creating connective intelligence to foster
collective intelligence through conver-
sation methodologies. These are particularly
important at a time where deep reimagination
is required for our emergent future101. These
allow spaces for rich and meaningful dialogue,
sharing of frustrations, as well as ideation
and connection with like minded individuals
to support each other in shaping the future
of learning and many other aspects which are
inextricably linked to our thrivable futures.
The following are communities exploring and
shaping the future in connection to other global
initiatives. There is Ben Roberts of the Thriving
Resilient Communities Collaboratory (TRCC)
with Now What102. Jon Ramer and Somer Joy
Ramer’s SINE initiative with their trademark

SINE Waves103 facebook group you can join
(Synergized Impact Network Exchange). John
Kellden’s Conversation Community104, Ben
Bowler and the World Weavers initiative105,
Sam Hahn’s Collaborology initiative106, Ashoka
Changemakers107, June Holley’s Network
Weaver community108 and Anneloes Smitsman,
Tipping Point Festival109. Much of their work
is not limited to generative conversation,
with many of these individuals and educators
exploring and offering support and collab-
oration through research, events, strategy
development and more. Yet they all recognise
the power of conversation and connection,
using formats such as the World cafe110.
Global Connections.
Global education involves learning about
those problems and issues that cut across
national boundaries, and about the intercon-
nectedness of systems: ecological, cultural,
economic, political and technological. Global
education involves perspective taking, seeing
things through the eyes of others. The Global
Oneness Project111, for example, brings the
world’s global cultures alive in the classroom.
They provide award-winning films and photo
essays which explore cultural, social, and
environmental issues and accompanying
lesson plans using stories as a pedagogical
tool to inspire growing minds, all for free.
THINK Global School112 is another example, a
travelling high school where students live and
learn in four countries a year, making unfor-
gettable connections between their education
and the world around them. At the wider
school network level, there are United World
Colleges113.
103
https://www.facebook.com/sinemembers/
104
https://www.facebook.com/groups/conversationsthatmin-
dandmatter/
105
https://worldweavers.com/
106
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GlobalChallengesCollaboration
107
https://www.facebook.com/ashokaschangemakers/
108
https://networkweaver.com/
109
https://www.earthwisecentre.org/tpf#section-1570452542572
110
http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/world-cafe-
method/
111
https://www.globalonenessproject.org/
112
https://thinkglobalschool.org/
113
https://www.uwc.org/
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
E. Evolving assessment:
Evaluation and assessment systems of the
past may not be best suited for guiding people
toward desired combinations of skills for the
21st century. We need to acknowledge the
limitations of assessment and redirect the
impact on people’s life, especially for young
people so that evaluation and assessment can
be experienced as valuable and encouraging
feedback.
While knowledge-based assessment of
cognitive abilities such as reading, writing,
arithmetic, memorization of facts and
dates, and/or template-based problem
solving are tangibly understood by conven-
tional assessment and evaluation through
standardized and automated testing, many of
the most increasingly demanded skills in the
21st century are less tangible and therefore
more challenging to access with traditional
methods. Social and emotional intelligence,
creativity, and our abilities to cooperate and
co-create as well as other critical skills of
the future must therefore be included in how
we define learner’s successes throughout the
cycle of life-long learning. We need to accept
the challenge of measuring these abilities as
metrics of “academic success”, and measure
them in new and dynamic ways, as “creative
profiles” describing range of multi-modal
abilities. Most essential, we should also assess
people in ways that do not destroy curiosity,
creativity, and cooperation — and that allow
people to learn by making mistakes. At the
systemic level Mastery Transcript brings
schools into a consortium to participate in
debate and consider adopting a Mastery
Transcript once it is piloted and launched.
The Mastery Transcript114 aims to be substan-
tively different from the traditional model of
assessment. It is organized around perfor-
mance areas (rather than academic depart-
19
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
ments), mastery standards and micro-credits
(rather than grades). Each micro-credit applied
to a transcript signifies complete mastery of a
specific skill, knowledge block or habit of mind
as defined by the crediting high school. There is
also a rise in tech platforms such as SeeSaw115
who have developed portfolios which also have
formative insights and family communication
integrated. These kind of platforms allow for
much deeper individualisation, so you could
post videos, written content, illustrations etc.
to show your learning. Templestowe College116
are putting this into practice at the whole
school level, partnered with local universities
who allow for their students to express their
learning in the best way they see fit. This has
encouraged mastery with students developing
impressive real-world projects, ones that could
not leave partner universities questioning their
competency to learn117. Other recent devel-
opments in assessment include: automated
marking, flexible degrees and paying only to
do the assessment vs. the entire course.118
F. Inclusion and Diversity:
Social justice movements such as Black Lives
Matter, Idle No More, Me Too, Arab Spring, or
the United Farm Workers, recognize the need
to both understand and address the many
systemic, structural, institutional, interper-
sonal, and individual/internal barriers to equity.
Additionally, they work to deconstruct oppressive
structures of power and privilege over time
through the dismantling of dominant culture
institutions, the healing of historical trauma,
the building of ally communities of resilience,
practice and support, and the creation of new
114
https://mastery.org/
115
https://web.seesaw.me/
116
https://tc.vic.edu.au/
117
https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-is-a-better-way-of-teaching-bored-australian-students-20181030-p50csj.html
118
https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/global/Files/about-pearson/innovation/open-ideas/PreparingforaRenaissancein-
Assessment.pdf
119
https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/1741149/mod_resource/content/1/CHO%2C%20S.%3B%20CRENSHAW%2C%20K.W.%3B%20
20
systems that truly serve all. The late activist
and philosopher Grace Boggs, in conversation
with Angela Davis, gave us this challenge:
“In the 1950s Einstein said the splitting of the
atom has changed everything but the human
mind and thus we drift towards catastrophe.
And he also said that imagination is more
important than education. In other words, the
time has come for us to reimagine everything.
We have to reimagine work and go away from
labor. We have to re-imagine revolution and
get beyond protest — we have to re-imagine
revolution and think not only about the change
in our institutions but the changes in ourselves.
We have to do what I call visionary organizing.
We have to see every crisis as both a danger
and an opportunity. It’s a danger because it
does so much damage to our lives, to our insti-
tutions, to all that we have expected. But it’s
also an opportunity for us to become creative,
for us to become the new kind of people that
are needed at such a huge period of transition”.
Intersectional theory, first coined by Kimberlé
Crenshaw119, states that people can be disad-
vantaged by multiple sources of oppression
and/or be both oppressed and oppressive
themselves and, thus, intersectional justice
work provides a framework to create holistic
change, and move towards relationships and
societies that are more just and equal for all.
This approach requires holding both a meta
perspective and a deeply internal awareness.
Instead of just looking at, for example,
businesses, these movements also look at
education, the justice system, policing, and
institutions that work in tandem. Instead of
focusing on just advocacy or activism, inter-
sectional justice movements also focus on
areas like self-determination and values,
collaboration with allied communities and

power sharing, cultivating pride and identity
awareness through celebration, documenting
history and culture, and taking action on acute
issues while also learning/unlearning to not
repeat mistakes of the past.
We can take inspiration and guidance from the
above ever evolving practices which can teach
us how to inclusively organize ourselves and
our communities creatively for the good of all.
Active Inclusion.
The importance and benefit of intentionally
creating and sustaining diverse, safe, and
inclusive learning environments cannot be
understated. Over thirty years of research on
inclusive classrooms and learning environ-
ments show that students learning together,
both students with extensive needs and from
diverse backgrounds and experiences, will not
only achieve ideal academic outcomes but will
also create meaningful behavioral change and
social relationships120. The research corrob-
orates that youth perform better in diverse
classrooms, with students (and educators) of
diverse backgrounds and experiences learning
with them, and it actively promotes creativity
and collaboration. Studies in childhood devel-
opment show that students feel safer in school
and in life when they are educated in diverse
settings and are more likely to promote
diversity outside of school environments121.
Ensuring there is intercultural and multicul-
tural education, and authentic genuine safe
space and learning for underrepresented or
120
https://www.thinkinclusive.us/research-inclusive-edu-
cation/
120
https://www.thinkinclusive.us/research-inclusive-edu-
cation/
121
https://unh.app.box.com/s/p7w3fnx69xghvrbtzejds9qb-
nhq164cd
122
http://globalminds.world/
123
http://generafundacion.org/
125
https://hundred-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/report/
file/1/Hundred_Research_Report_001_-_Every_Child_
to_Flourish.pdf
126
https://downloads.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2010/05/UNCRC_united_nations_convention_
on_the_rights_of_the_child.pdf
127
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2018/06/27/
its-not-the-findings-that-make-this-education-re-
port-unusual/#9d6babf14b1f
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
minority students such as LGBTQIA+, disabled
youth, refugees, and increasing opportunities
for multilingualism, as well as expansive
education in gender awareness as well as
rural and distance education is a necessity.
Training in diversity, equity, and inclusion for
educators and administration is also necessary
for sustained success. There are many ways
people are working for active inclusion;
Global Minds122, for example, is a for-youth
by-youth organization that inspires students
to form social bonds, intercultural friend-
ships, and to consider global issues through
youth led extracurricular activities. Another
example is Comunidad Genera123, in Chile,
who provide trainings in gender equality and
sexual diversity to students, parents, teachers
and staff of educational communities through
seven minute videos. It also provides teaching
and family activities with gender perspective
explained through one minute videos that
promote gender equality and LGBTQIA+ rights
and allows teachers to send parents tasks with
the same goal. Or we can look at Disability
Rights, Education, Activism, and Mentoring
(DREAM)124, a national online disability cultural
center connecting and supporting students to
become leaders and agents of change on their
campuses. The student-led organization strives
to empower students with disabilities to work
for campus and national change, encourage
the development of disability culture and peer
support, and advance the study of disabilities
within academia. Additionally, we must also
make efforts to include youth voices in our
research and development of education. The
Every Child to Flourish report, for example,
includes insights from over 400 young people
in 19 different countries world wide on what
they believe needs to improve in education,
their insights feed into innovations selected
to be promoted around the world125. Collabo-
ration including youth is actually enshrined in
Article 12 of the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child126 yet this research
was recognised in the media as being partic-
ularly unusual for this approach despite the
21
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
UN enshrined the children’s right to partic-
ipate in 1989 based on their freedom of
expression127. Research can be co-authored
by young people as well, for example a Whole
Systems Approach to Education Redesign a
case study on the need for intergenerational
perspectives and inclusion was published by a
17 year old exploring the future of education in
a cross-cultural context.128
No Singular Education System/School.
The diversity of places and ways to organize
education grows not only due to the devel-
opment of online technologies. We are
witnessing a variety of different forms of
alternative and original schools, such as Agile
Learning Centres129, an expanding network of
intentional learning communities leveraging
agile tools to support Self-Directed Education,
or unschooling and homeschooling communities
like The Learning Co-operative130, a parent run,
alternative primary school situated on beautiful
bushland close to Hurstbridge, Victoria. As
well as education clubs and open aware-
ness-building initiatives like live libraries131
and flying universities to name a few132, which
form a completely new learning landscape.
They are based on diversity and interaction
of different approaches and methodologies,
making it possible to choose from a range of
what suits best one’s personal learning style
and worldview. We must keep complexity in
mind to see multiple aspects and possibilities
for ourselves and each other.
Networks for Learning.
It seems that current pressures have created
the ideal conditions for the rise of a “new”
128
https://www.dropbox.com/s/00wg4c77btihfa2/KLaszlo%20-%20
EdFuture-paper.pdf?dl=
129
https://agilelearningcenters.org/
130
http://www.hurstbridgelearningcoop.vic.edu.au/
131
https://www.coe.int/en/web/youth/living-library
132
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_University
133
https://www.communityshare.us/
134
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319595801
135
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Emergent_Strategy.
html?id=JBwwDwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_
esc=y
22
network-based education which provides more
relevant content and learning experiences
by involving a variety of new providers. This
weaves learners and providers into a web of
interconnected learning spaces and processes,
creating flows of information that allow such
systems to become increasingly flexible and
adaptive, while at the same time becoming
increasingly global. It is now possible to
choose freely not only from where to learn, but
also from whom to learn, and become a valid
distributor of ideas, knowledge and lifestyle.
Though this trend is only at a starting point
now, we can confidently predict its growth,
which makes a powerful shift from education
technologies as a privilege of a narrow
professional strata to education technol-
ogies as an expression of one’s sincere will to
share knowledge. It is also perhaps the most
powerful in that it allows people to take this
process firmly offline and integrated within
the local community. Ecosystem leader, Joshua
Schachter, has developed CommunityShare133
which transforms cities into human libraries
through an online platform and offline relation-
ships that connect local community expertise
and knowledge to real-world learning experi-
ences with students and teachers.
G. Servant and Shared
Governance and Leadership.
Major shifts occur in the management of
education systems, whereby national and
local governments and other major stake-
holders recognize the increased variety
of learner types and needs, and learning
models to support them. Addressing the
area of shared leadership is explored deeply
by authors such as Neha Chatwani who
embraces the underlying idea that leadership
is a dynamic process that intersects closely
with followership exploring more inclusive and

holistic paradigms.134 There is also the work
of Adrienne Maree Brown, who, in a magical
combination of radical self-help, society-help,
and planet-help, mirrors and playfully explores
that we need Emergent Strategy to enable us
all to play a role in embodying and prototyping
the future together.135
Accordingly, new types of governance emerge
in education including:
(1) Transition from hierarchy to “networked”
governance, implying that development
of education occurs not by centralized
top-down promoting of new “educa-
tional reforms”, but by cultivating suitable
approaches bottom-up.
(2) Design of new tools that support this
bottom-up development: “scanning” and
“pulling” educational innovation competi-
tions and acceleration programs, grants
provided to schools and teachers, maps
and professional networks of innovators.
Creating incentives and promotions for
innovators.
(3) Cultivation of communities of practice for
new education paradigm practitioners that
can creatively search for opportunities for
design and implementation of innovations
(having sufficient time and resources to
reflect, discuss, and experiment)
(4) Taking into consideration the diversity of
situation of various regions and schools
(economy, resource availability etc.).
(5) Using education as a key vehicle for
socio-economic development at the
regional and national scale.
(6) Changing role of governments that become
facilitators of “fair game” opportunities
and equity while maintaining growth of
diversity.
An example of grassroot civic governance and
community acceleration initiative, Alternative
136
https://alternativecamden.com/
137
https://hundred-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/report/
file/1/Hundred_Research_Report_001_-_Every_Child_
to_Flourish.pdf
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
Camden136 in London are exploring new ways
to invest in public good and social progress.
They started alt.cmd, co-founded by Camden
Town Unlimited︎, Euston Town︎, Dark Matter
Labs︎ & Future Cities Catapult︎ as a collective
investment to explore how to create the
ecosystem for local innovation and imagi-
nation together, running collective local exper-
iments with the community. They are working
on accelerating regulation, the economy, the
environment, education, AI and privacy.
While there are many positive trends within
education systems including the above it is also
clear that if education systems are to evolve to
prepare learners to navigate our increasingly
VUCA future and address the “wicked problems”
facing our world, they must become a source for
building our individual and collective capacities
to do so together. Whilst many of the examples
above point to “bright spots” of learning and
innovation in education we need to connect
and foster collaboration between these actors
so that we don’t foster disconnected islands
of innovation. What is needed, this research
suggests, is to cultivate the collaborative
ecosystems within these innovative approaches
are developed both locally and globally.
Given the depth and scale of challenges we
face, we need sustainable and regenerative
approaches to learning and innovation that
address the many facets of “wicked problems”
and holistic education that prepares learners
to work and play toward viable futures137.
“We’re teaching people to look for a
right answer but those out in the world,
out in the field know that it is never
so simple. Our current education is
conditioning yourself to think in a linear
way and wiping out the complexity, our
reality”
Garry Jacobs,
CEO of the World Academy of
Arts and Science
23
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
1.3
Why Ecosystemic
Transitions
At this time in our history, humanity is facing
two of the most significant questions we have
ever encountered. Firstly, how do we establish
deep resilience as a global civilization in the
midst of accelerating and increasing social and
technological complexity? Secondly, how do we
harmonize the relationship between humanity
and other planetary systems, such as the
biosphere as a whole, and the climate systems
of land, air, and water138? The diversity of risks
we face today can be reduced to these two
fundamental questions. While industrial-based
society has solved many social challenges is
has also produced many unintended negative
eco/social/economic/cultural consequences.
In the midst of increasing complexity of our
local and global challenges the intersectional
nature of the dynamics we face is forcing us
to address questions across societal domains
about how we as a human community will
learn, make choices, and lead together going
forward.
The work of Yaneer Bar-Yam explored the
models of governance and control structures
throughout the entire human history139. He
indicated that as the complexity of diversity
across human societies grew, hierarchical
models of governance in complexity and
efficiency would reach their peak in the second
138
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319684481_Systemic_Innovation_Education_and_the_Social_Impact_of_the_Systems_
Sciences
139
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=331688
140
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=331688
141
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/An_Introduction_to_Cybernetics.html?id=mHtQAAAAMAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_
esc=y
142
http://www.tecnos.cienciassociais.ufg.br/up/410/o/Our_Final_Hour_%E2%80%93_A_Scientist’s_Warning_._2003_._Martin_
Rees_c%C3%B3pia.pdf
143
https://www.jetpress.org/volume9/risks.html
24
half of the 20th century, yet after that their
efficiency would begin to decline (see Figure
2). Too many levels of hierarchy, with too few
decision makers at the top, does not allow
governance to comprehend the complex
situation in its entirety. These models then
give way to hybrid decision making structures
that are more interconnected, where hierar-
chies are combined with networks.
According to the requisite variety law estab-
lished by William Ross Ashby141 the variety (or
complexity) of a governing system must be the
same or greater than systems they govern.
Therefore, as interconnected global societies
continue to create new layers of techno-
logical and social complexity, we should see
new systems of governance that can “absorb”
complexity. An emerging complex network-
based civilization requires new systems of
governance that are adequately complex, and
so it must be governed by a network in which
everyone is a node in the net. This requires
that every individual and collective agent
both coordinates and is coordinated. As it is
estimated there is probability of around 50%
that human civilization collapsing before the
end of the 21st century142, and the possibility of
humankind disappearing altogether is between
20% and 30%143, this is something we need to
begin to learn and implement presently. The
cumulative nature of global risks has been
widely discussed in Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile,
where he suggests that it is not possible to
prevent the accumulation of global risks within
the increasingly complex society by creating
better systems of command and control144,
reinforcing Ashby’s work. Instead he suggests
that the best way to ensure global civilization
is crush-prone or “antifragile” is to create the
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

Complexity Progression

Individual

Civilization
Collective
Complexity

Hunter- Early Civilizations Industrial Hybrid Networked

Gatherer Revolution Civilization

Control Structure

Hierarchy Network

Laternal
Connections
Specialisation
Hierarchy
Levels

Specialisation / Diversity

Time

Figure 2: Evolution of models of governance140

25
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

Variety
Unity

Shared vision Diversity

of the future: maintained:
Shared worldview, purposes Various “players” and
Goals and values diverse strategies

Ecosystemic
organisation

Relations
Evolutionary
Interdependence:
Productive cooperation, search:
symbiotic relations Experiments, prototypes,
unexpected effects, “letting
flow”

Figure 3: “Paradoxical” qualities of ecosystemic organization

26

capacity to absorb risks at source: at the level
of personal action. In other words, it requires
every citizen of the global world to take care
of the globe, especially the continual negative
impacts we’ve had on nature and the potential
destructive conflicts within our society. Thus,
the main role in global risk prevention should
be attributed to individual and collective
competencies that foster local, national, and
global wellbeing.
As we move from the industrial age into the
digital we notice that the digitalisation of our
society and education is a continuation of
the industrial paradigm in many regards. The
spreading of machine like action and behaviour
into a greater number of activities such as
personal, processes, and relationship building
is apparent in much of what we do. Yet, simul-
taneously in the face of this technofying trend,
there are of course alternative pathways we
might choose to take that are based upon our
ecological evolutionary heritage. We can, if
we choose, reconnect with the natural world,
with the “Nature” within us, and cultivate
ways of thinking and action which are organic
and connected to the living systems, the
ecosystems of which we are a part. In the face
of future scenarios we can continue to invest
in siloed industrial and digital infrastructure or
we can model the intelligence of nature and
incorporate our technological advances into
web’s of interconnection inspired by living
ecosystems.
The term ecosystem was used for the first
time as early as 1935 and was used to mean
an agglomeration of living and non-living
objects, independent, but connected, acting
concurrently during the whole life cycle145.
It was recognised that every ecosystem is
unique, but all of them consist of the same
groups of agents, including energy producers
144
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Antifragile.html?id=T9hbUv4NIU0C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=o-
nepage&q&f=false
145
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225537620_The_Ecosystem_as_a_Multidimensional_Concept_Meaning_Model_and_Metaphor
146
https://www.iemed.org/observatori/arees-danalisi/arxius-adjunts/qm-16-originals/roquema_towards%20ecologised%20thought%20
interview%20with%20edgar%20morin_qm16.pdf
147
https://wtf.tw/ref/meadows.pdf
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
(autotrophs), energy consumers (hetero-
trophs) and non-living objects, or environment,
and inherit common traits like adaptability,
diversity, connectivity, and the ability to
distribute and recycle resources. A small
group of intellectuals such as Edgar Morin,
French philosopher and sociologist, elevated
the concept of ecosystems which gained
paradigm status covering the complex interac-
tions between its living and nonliving compo-
nents146. This new dimension of the term lends
itself to exploring the metaphoric potential of
biological ecosystems for other disciplines.
The fact that ecosystems are so common and
widespread in nature indicates that this way
of organizing is most efficient from an evolu-
tionary point of view, as it has been selected
over any other ways in the 4 billions years of
history of life. It allows life to self-organize in
all its incredible variety, while keeping maximal
sustainability and resilience of any given
ecosystem in its interconnection with the rest
of the world.147
So how do we embrace complexity and make
it work for us? System science suggests that
ecosystems have a paradoxical ability to
maintain both the unity and the variety for
an advantageous way of governing (Figure
3). The unity is established by creating shared
interaction protocols and orientation of all
ecosystem participants towards cooperation,
as well as by setting up shared values and
long term goals. The variety is established
by “evolutionary” protocols in that there is no
single plan for the ecosystem, and any partic-
ipant can engage in experimentation or explo-
ration, and any participant can either achieve
“evolutionary success” (begin to develop, grow,
spread) or fail and “die out.”
Due to increasing complexity, connectivity,
and proximity multi-stakeholder interconnec-
27
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

Transport The transport industry is moving

towards solutions that are:

Smart technology can help address many transpor-

tation problems and evolve the industry as a whole
through ecosystemic connection148. Massive break-
throughs in transportation-related AI technology are
Cooperative
already occurring today, with autonomous vehicles
surging in popularity around the globe. All major car
manufacturers are currently exploring autonomous
vehicles, with companies like Google and Lyft having
autonomous fleets roam the streets of many cities.
The Department of Transportation, in the US, has
also recognized the impact AI has, creating proposals Multi-modal
for cities that are looking into smart infrastruc-
tures. It will award $40 million USD to a city that
can demonstrate how to effectively solve critical
municipal challenges using innovative transpor-
tation technologies, data, and applications149. Other
examples include, NewCities150, a global nonprofit
committed to shaping a better urban future, they are
Electrical

developing services so all players in the transport

ecosystem can interact in a safe and globally
deployable way. They have partnered with Ericsson151,
whose approach to connecting the transportation
industry is focused on providing solutions in three
stages: connected, cooperating and automated. They
Automated
believe that connected transport must meet three
criteria: 1) multimodal — using different modes of
transport in a smart way 2) shared — both vehicles
and transport infrastructure must be shared in a
smart way 3) managed — achieved through services
such as smart booking, smart traffic management
and smart payments.152 Connected

Figure 4. Ecosystemic organization of

transportation sector153

28
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

tions are increasing. Out of this trend complex
networks of knowledge production are arising.
Assembly-line learning and industrial inspired
education systems are not designed to evolve
to meet this kind of increasing complexities
facing society today. Siloed institutions, are,
and will continue to be made redundant in a
future increasingly shaped by complex inter-
connection and interdependence. We therefore
need, and are indeed at the beginning of an
“ecosystemic transition” through which we will
need to embrace the wisdom of living systems
and model our relationships, interactions, and
organizing processes after the living complex
adaptive systems upon which all life depends.
One indicator of this emerging transition is the
increasing use of the term “ecosystem” across
a great variety of sectors, from transportation
and energy to healthcare, city administration,
social innovation and the arts.
While there are indeed various approaches to
“ecosystems organizing” developing across
a wide spectrum of domains as the above
highlights, in educational contexts learning
ecosystems tend toward emphasizing a new
type of education altogether; a way of learning
that replaces mechanistic approaches with
those dedicated to fostering flourishing lives
and futures. The present paradigm of education
was created around two centuries ago in
the interest of national states and the rising
sector of mass-scale industrial production. At
the heart of the system was adherence to the
standard and suppression of originality and
creativity, and its purpose was to produce loyal
citizens and obedient workers. However, with
the rise of a complex society which is driven
by creativity and innovation and adhering to
inclusivity and democratization, old forms of
organized learning become increasingly irrel-
evant. The emerging format of a learning
ecosystem is often touted as a new paradigm
of education, contrasted with existing educa-
tional system.
One of the earliest uses of this notion in
education, describing the innovative approach
of Virginia Polytech indicates: “Educational
Ecosystem involves assets and interests of
all stakeholders (faculty, students, industry,
community, and specific individuals within
each of these categories) combined to achieve
synergistic results that benefit all.”154 It moves
from the total indifference of the uniqueness
of each individual to appreciating everyone’s
ability to provide a means to integrate a
diverse milieu of learning opportunities in a
holistic and life affirming way. The Innovation
Unit, for example, first released a report on
education ecosystems in 2011 in partnership
with CISCO entitled Developing an Innovation
Ecosystem for Education155. With the field of
social innovation exploring ecosystems for the
last decade it’s unsurprising that we see the
term innovation as the central focal point of
this work. We now see 8 years later the release
of another report by the Innovation Unit, this
time in partnership with WISE, Local Learning
Ecosystems: Emerging Models156. This work
showcases 9 case studies of eco-systemic
approaches based on the following qualities:
they 1) are diversifying learning resources
and pathways for learners, 2) are activating
and sharing resources for learning in new
ways from diverse sources, 3) are dynamic

148
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=400&nr=755&menu=1515
149
https://medium.com/kambria-network/series-6-transforming-the-transportation-ecosystem-f7a9c13d2969
150
https://newcities.org/transforming-transport-by-building-ecosystems-not-ego-systems/
151
https://www.ericsson.com/en
152
https://newcities.org/transforming-transport-by-building-ecosystems-not-ego-systems/
153
https://www.ericsson.com/en
154
http://www.globaledufutures.org/images/people/GEF_april26-min.pdf
155
https://www.innovationunit.org/publications/developing-an-innovation-ecosystem-for-education/
156
https://www.innovationunit.org/publications/local-learning-ecosystems-emerging-models/

29
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
Social Innovation
Around the world social innovation is on the rise as
public, private, governmental, and multi-stakeholder
innovators seek to address societal challenges at
both the local and global scale. This trend speaks
to the recognition that social innovation is not a
luxury for the few, but rather a necessity for all. In
this light, Tonya Surman and the Centre For Social
Innovation157 team in Toronto, Canada suggests that
“Social innovation refers to the creation, develop-
ment, adoption and integration of new and renewed
concepts, systems and practices that put people and
planet first. At their best, social innovations tackle
the root causes of problems by changing the systems
that are causing the problem .” The McConnell
158
Foundations Re-Code initiative159, for example, aims
to reimagine schools as an integral part of commu-
nities to develop and amplify social innovation’s
thereby “re-coding education to meet today’s social
challenges”. Furthermore, Social Innovation Canada,
a national initiative dedicated to connecting and
amplifying the social innovation ecosystem across
the country and beyond, is an exemplar of creating
the collaborative and digital infrastructure to
engage, nourish, and grow ecosystem approaches
to addressing root causes and co-creating systems
level solutions. Additionally, many around the world,
seeking to empower social innovation initiatives
including practitioners, researchers, and policy
157
https://socialinnovation.org/
158
https://socialinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Unlocking-Canadian-Social-Innovation-.pdf
159
https://mcconnellfoundation.ca/initiative/recode/
160
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/why_cultivating_your_innovation_ecosystem_is_worth_the_work#
30
makers alike are increasingly committed to the
development of “innovation ecosystems’. Elizabeth
Hoffecker at the MIT D-Lab for example, has been
conducting research on innovation ecosystems,
which they define as “place-based communities of
interacting actors engaged in producing innovation
and supporting processes of innovation, along with
the infrastructure and enabling environment which
allows them to create, adopt, and spread solu-
tions to local challenges.” Across different contexts
around the world, it has been found that developing
innovation ecosystems, or strengthening ones that
already exist, produce a consistent set of benefits for
innovators, entrepreneurs, and localities, including:
1) Common assets, including physical assets such as
workshop and co-working spaces and financial assets
like new savings and loan funds for innovators. 2)
Shared infrastructure, including communication
infrastructure and “relationship infrastructure,” such
as new networks and linkages between members of
the system. 3) New resources, including information,
new know-how, and a workforce with enhanced skills
specific to certain industry and innovation niches.
4) Favorable operating conditions for innovation,
including changes in norms, rules, and policies to
create a more-level playing field. 5) New capacities
within the system—such as large-scale production,
distribution, and collective action capacities that
enable coalitions to achieve results that no single
member of the ecosystem could have achieved on its
own.160
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

Social Innovation Ecosystem

Start-up Ecosystem

Social Provides
ventures capital & Social
expertise capital
philantropists
Provides ideas, Pa
rtn Provides
incubators er
& smart people s Policy Frame-
Capital & works
Provides network
expertise & mentoring to
support Provides
Colleges investment
Source: https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/diversity/reports/social-innovation-shaping-canadas-future.pdf

& expertise Government

& universities Provides R&D
& partners
& Talent ks
or
Social capital ew rt
Recruits & trains a m po
p
Private philantropists Fr Su
smart people Provides Tech- &
sector nology support
& Training

Innovation Ecosystem

31
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
Research Development
Innovation
ecosystem
Entrepreneurial ecosystem
Concept
Learning
Children: Youth:
early first real life
engagement of projects
tech talent
Figure 5: An example of how multilayered ecosystems are interdependent at an
entrepreneurial, innovation and learning ecosystems level
in composition and porous around the edges,
4) are supported by helpful infrastructure, 5)
comprise formal and informal learning insti-
tutions, traditional and new entrants, 6) have
distributed governance, 7) are learner driven
or have learner agency at their heart and 8)
make an attempt to meet twenty-first century
challenges in some way, beyond academic
attainment.
Whilst the Innovation Unit focus on the local
learning ecosystems, they also highlight two
other kinds of ecosystems they believe to be
within existence and of particular note for
education: 1. Knowledge sharing ecosystems,
operating at global or national level and 2.
Innovation ecosystems, operating at city or
jurisdiction level. Rosie Clayton’s Building
Innovation Ecosystems in Education to
Reinvent School: A study of innovation &
system change in the USA161, also explores
161
https://www.wcmt.org.uk/sites/default/files/report-documents/Clayton%20R%20Report%202016%20Final.pdf
162
https://www.uwc.org/
32
Pilot Scalable
technology technology
MVP Scaling \ growth
Technological:
talents and
entrepreneurs
in her research, the importance of innovation
ecosystem culture in schools, in which multiple
actors who disrupt existing practices to design
new learning models and new communities
for learning are key. This is unsurprising as
in recent years, high expectations were set
with digital educational technologies that
were expected to revolutionize the paradigm
of education. It was often anticipated that the
digitalization of education would make it more
human-focused, more interconnecting, more
learner-empowering, similarly to many other
spheres of human interaction. However, during
the last couple of decades it became evident
that the digital paradigm in education does
not necessarily make education “ecosystemic”.
Not every form of new, digitized education is
learner centered and learner empowering. It
can also become a way of continuing the old
paradigm, the one keeping learners passivized
and obedient.

Then it must be noted that it seems that the
essence of what it means to learn “ecosys-
temically” is multifaceted. Ecosystemic “ways
of being” are interconnected and seek to form
patterns and rhythms that synchronize related
parts of society. Learning ecosystems are not
isolated responses to challenges that educa-
tional systems face, rather they support the
integration of other sectors towards collective
learning. Learning ecosystems should be seen
then as integrating various types of innovation,
entrepreneurial, and learning ecosystem
approaches (Figure 5). For example, let us
consider an ecosystem for new technological
sectors, such as Silicon Valley, Boston area,
Tel-Aviv, or ELAT (Eindhoven-Leuven-Aachen
Triangle).
For such an ecosystem to function adequately,
it requires all kinds of support and projects at
different stages, such as meetups, coworking
spaces, seed funding and mentorship. But
an entrepreneurial ecosystem will only be
successful if coupled with the knowledge/
innovative ecosystem, where universities, labs,
and industrial partners work together to bring
ideas from research and convert them into
scalable industrial technologies. Yet none of
these ecosystems will be able to develop and
grow unless a constant inflow of people with
the necessary skills and wellbeing are working
together. In our ever-changing world, and often
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
stress inducing world, we must nurture skills
and wellbeing, engaging with much longer
cycles of human development that starts
at school and even preschool stage, or even
earlier. All educational systems, we suggest,
must become learning ecosystems supporting
collective thriving.
What seems to be emerging then is that
ecosystemic approaches when combined
can strengthen capacity building for entre-
preneurial, innovation, and learning compe-
tencies. Learning across multi-stakeholder
groups fosters opportunities for uncommon
collaborations and, when partnered with inter-
generational and lifelong learning opportu-
nities, set the stage for a radical shift in how
education systems could be organized. There
is no standardized “one size fits all” approach
to a new paradigm of learning in our complexi-
fying times. What is called for is a transfor-
mational approach to learning and education
as a force for good and peacemaking. This
is what inspired schools such as the United
World Colleges162 the possibility that education
can be “a force to unite people, nations and
cultures for peace and a sustainable future”.
The opportunity and challenge inherent in
this trajectory is to discover together how we
can unify lifelong, multi-stakeholder, and truly
transformational learning.
33
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

34
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

2
The Purpose
of Learning
Ecosystems
and Emerging
Definitions

35
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
2.1
Learning From
Ecosystems
This research suggests we are witnessing
across diverse educational contexts the
increasing use of the term “learning ecosystem”.
Understanding what “ecosystems” are is a
prerequisite to understanding how “learning
ecosystems” may better serve learners than
industrial education models. This shift from
“industrial” to “ecosystemic” requires us
to understand how living ecosystems can
influence our understanding of collective
learning. Human traditions the world over offer
unique insight into our understanding of the
world. While Western education systems tend
toward the scientific paradigm as our primary
source of knowledge, this is but one lens
through which to understand reality. There are
many perspectives and worldviews, traditions
and ways of knowing that can teach us about
our world and our place in it. To truly under-
stand ecosystems with depth and integrity we
can explore a variety of perspectives including,
scientific approaches, ancient wisdom tradi-
tions, ecological cosmologies, and traditional
ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples
around the world. To begin, in the words of
theoretical physicist F. David Peat, author of
Blackfoot Physics:
“Indigenous knowing is a vision of the
world that encompasses both the heart
and the head, the soul and the spirit.
It could no more deal with matter in
isolation than the theory of relativity
164
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Blackfoot_Physics.html?id=ZMP21NgGlx8C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
36
could fragment space and time. It is
a vision in which rock and tree, bird
and fish, human being and caribou
are all alive and partakers of the gifts
of Mother Earth. Indigenous science
does not seek to found its knowledge,
as we do, at the level of some most
ultimate elementary particle or theory,
rather it is a science of harmony and
compassion, of dream and vision, of
Earth and cosmos, of hunting and
growing, of technology and spirit, of
song and dance, of colour and number
of cycle and balance, of death and
renewal.”163
This integral understanding of the Earth and
the cosmos has the potential to remind us all of
our relationship to the living systems that we
are inextricably a part of. Ecosystems are not
something “out there”, not merely a distantly
observable phenomenon, but rather, humans
as individuals and collectively are part of the
ecosystems we seek to understand. Explorer
and ethnobotanist Wade Davis suggests:
“We have this extraordinary conceit in
the West that while we’ve been hard at
work in the creation of technological
wizardry and innovation, somehow
the other cultures of the world have
been intellectually idle. Nothing could
be further from the truth… We now
know to be true biologically what
we’ve always dreamed to be true
philosophically, and that is that we are
all brothers and sisters. We are all, by
definition, cut from the same genetic
cloth. That means every single human

society and culture, by definition,
shares the same raw mental activity,
the same intellectual capacity. And
whether that raw genius is placed
in service of technological wizardry
or unraveling the complex thread of
memory inherent in a myth is simply
a matter of choice and cultural
orientation.”164
Academic, author and activist David Suzuki
suggests that “aboriginal people are our best
bet for protecting the planet, not environmen-
talists” specifically because of the cultural/
ecological orientation of indigenous people.
In recognition of our dependence on living
systems, he suggests “...the most important
factor that every human being needs to
live and flourish is a breath of air, a drink of
water, food and the energy from photosyn-
thesis. Without those elements, we die… our
healthy future depends on protecting those
fundamental needs, which amazingly enough,
are cleansed, replenished and created by the
web of life itself.”165 Traditional Ecological
Knowledge (TEK) teaches us about the web of
life, and our place in an interconnected world.
Rather than being in contrast to a eurocentric
scientific paradigm TEK can help us see the
relationships we have to the land, the places
we call home, to ourselves and each other, and
all life.166
164
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Serpent_and_the_Rainbow.html?id=NAs-JZ1MhoMC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
165
https://davidsuzuki.org/
166
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=J2CNS64AFvsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR6&dq=traditional+ecological+knowledge&ots=KBlhGhys-
Fl&sig=F5wexUY6DHqKOpeCNKANlI6nh8I#v=onepage&q=traditional%20ecological%20knowledge&f=false
167
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+an+ecosystem&oq=what+is+an+ecosyste&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l4.2133j0j7&sourceid=-
chrome&ie=UTF-8
168
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
Learning from ecosystems then is not an
abstract idea, but rather, an imperative.
Moreover, learning to become intentional in
being part of living systems and develop deep
empathic capacities allowing us to flow with
nature and its systems will allow humanity to
shift the narrative from one of separation to
one of belonging, of “interbeing”. If we are to
shift from industrial models of learning and
organizing toward ecosystemic then modeling
the genius of living systems, and learning from
peoples who traditionally hold this knowledge
is our greatest hope. Learning together from
ecosystems then is truly the leading edge of
this emerging field and will help shape the
future of learning ecosystems as an emerging
praxis. With the aim of offering an overview
of evolving perspectives of ecosystems from
a western orientation, a quick online search
for the term “biological ecosystem” points to
definitions such as the following:
“An ecosystem is a community of
living organisms in conjunction with
the nonliving components of their
environment, interacting as a system.
These biotic and abiotic components
are linked together through nutrient
cycles and energy flows.”167
“An ecosystem is a large community of
living organisms (plants, animals and
microbes) in a particular area. The living
and physical components are linked
together through nutrient cycles and
energy flows. Ecosystems are of any
size, but usually they are in particular
places.”168
37
1. The
2. Introduction:
Purpose of
The
Learning
Future of
Ecosystems
Learning and Emerging Definitions

The most important factor that every

human being needs to live and flourish
is a breath of air, a drink of water, food
and the energy from photosynthesis.
Without those elements, we die… our
healthy future depends on protecting
those fundamental needs, which
amazingly enough, are cleansed,
replenished and created by the web of
life itself.

38

Source: https://www.nasa.gov
Figure 6. NASA image of Sahara dust carried to Amazon basin
Both of these definitions focus on the inter-
relationship and community centrism of
ecosystems, recognising ecosystems as
place-based and that the component parts of
ecosystems are united in collective unfolding.
Life on Earth is organized in ecosystems. Every
complex community of organisms (a biome)
and our biosphere as a whole is organized
ecosystemically. For example, on a micro level
our bodies are in fact ecosystems of symbiotic
microbes and bacteria that greatly influence
our lives and health. It is a striking discovery
to understand that approximately 99% of the
human genome does not belong to us but to
these symbionts169. On a macro level, microbes
are distributed across the planet via weather
patterns, as is phosphorus-rich dust from the
Sahara desert carried to the Amazon basin
fertilizing the rainforest170 (Figure 6).
Our lives are inextricably united and embedded
at the micro and macro level in the ecosystems
from which we have evolved and that we
contribute to moment by moment simply
by being alive. Ecosystems are a viable life
organising pattern for continued evolution and
169
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/06/13/154913334/finally-a-map-of-all-the-microbes-on-your-body
170
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazon-s-plants/
171
https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other
2. The Purpose of Learning1.Ecosystems
Introduction:
andThe
Emerging
Future of
Definitions
Learning
as the definitions above suggest, ecosystems
include an array of dynamic variables, such as:
Ecosystems are both highly adaptive (i.e.
they can modify themselves in response
to disturbances or interventions) and
highly resilient (i.e. they can regenerate
themselves if disrupted or damaged)
Ecosystems foster diversity, intercon-
nection and mutualistic or symbiotic
relationships (A great example is micorise,
a symbiosis of mycelium and tree roots that
connects trees in a forest as a deeply inter-
woven system)
Ecosystems include a variety of integral
roles in relation to each other and to an
environment. Ecosystem hosts for example,
establish non-competitive and mutually
beneficial relationships with species in
the ecosystem, usually providing home and
shelter for them. Ecosystems of greater
maturity also shift to highly complex collab-
oration where each part of the system
(mostly) works together to balance the whole
overcoming limitations of competition for
39
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
self-survival. (Two great examples of hosts
are coral reefs in the sea and “mother trees”
in forests.171)
Ecosystems have reinforcing, self-reg-
ulating and balancing functions that
support the health of a given ecosystem.
(For example predator / prey relations create
a system of checks and balances between
different species that limit risks of overpop-
ulation and produce ecosystems of higher
complexity and variety. “How wolves change
rivers” a vignette of how reintroducing
wolves to Yellowstone Park changed the
course of rivers provides a great illustration
of this dynamic.172)
Ecosystems circulate resources and
make use of all available resources in a
given system. They tend toward maximal
“productive capacity” — i.e., they
sustainably foster and transform the
maximum possibility of living matter given
the amount of solar radiation, water and
other key resources available.
In addition to the above mentioned evolutionary
and biological attributes of ecosystems, social
scientists have a long tradition of “borrowing”
biological concepts to understand complex
societal dynamics. This Western rationalized
perspective usually narrowed the complex
dynamics of life to a particular aspect, leading
to oversimplified and often erroneous conclu-
sions. For instance, two late-19 century social
scholars, Herbert Spencer and Piotr Kropotkin,
both took inspiration from then recently-pub-
lished Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
Yet Spencer emphasized the competition as
a driver of evolution: he coined “survival of
the fittest” as the main principle of natural
evolution, and suggested that these dynamics
explain and justify the social inequality,
becoming one of the founding fathers of
“Social Darwinism”. Kropotkin, on the contrary,
suggested that the main force of evolution is
cooperation between species, and he saw the
40
The concept of a business
ecosystem
In 1993 the business strategist James Moore
adopted the biological concept a Harvard Business
Review article “Predators and Prey: A New Ecology
of Competition,” in which he paralleled compa-
nies operating in the increasingly interconnected
world of commerce to a community of organisms
adapting and evolving to survive. Moore suggested
that a company be viewed not as a single firm in an
industry, but as a member of a business ecosystem
with participants spanning across multiple industries.
To Moore a business ecosystem was:
“An economic community supported by a foundation
of interacting organizations and individuals—the
organisms of the business world. The economic
community produces goods and services of value
to customers, who are themselves members of the
ecosystem. The member organisms also include
suppliers, lead producers, competitors, and other
stakeholders. Over time, they co-evolve their capa-
bilities and roles and tend to align themselves with
the directions set by one or more central compa-
nies. Those companies holding leadership roles may
change over time, but the function of ecosystem
leader is valued by the community because it enables
members to move toward shared visions to align
their investments and to find mutually supportive
roles.”
To this end, it was identified that a business
ecosystem consists of a network of interlinked
companies that dynamically interact with each other
through competition and cooperation to grow sales
and survive. An ecosystem includes suppliers, distrib-
utors, consumers, government, processes, products,
and competitors. When an ecosystem thrives, it
means that the participants have developed patterns
of behavior that streamline the flow of ideas, talent,
and capital throughout the system.

same dynamics as a driver of social life and
progress, he therefore became the founder
of anarchism (which in modern terms may
also be called decentralized or network based
society). While both researchers derived their
social theories from the same biological
inspiration, they created two social theories
that had major real life implications yet
were almost incompatible with each other.
However, later as social studies were infused
with more rigorous system science frame-
works, the use of ideas such as evolution or
ecosystems has become more nuanced and
scientifically motivated. Around three decades
ago the ecosystemic approach also began to
spread as a way of organizing technological
innovation. Even before that, the concept
of ecosystem has been used by organiza-
tional scholars such as Michael Hannan and
John Freeman173 who explore the evolution
of various types of organizations, as well as
economists such Richard Nelson and Sidney
Winter174 who explore the evolution of innova-
tions and industries.
Looking to definitions that have sprung up
in education, the OECD share, in a report
examining entrepreneurial ecosystems for
learning, a fairly detailed but nonetheless
relevant definition and does, as far as exploring
explicitly biomimicry metaphors, showcase
what it means to be an ecosystem.
“Ecosystems are defined by the network
of interactions among organisms,
and between organisms and their
environment. They can be of any size
but usually encompass specific, limited
spaces. In the world of education,
ecosystems may be defined as the full
173
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Organizational_Ecology.html?id=UVHDye2683gC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
174
http://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb/pdf_2/Dosi_1_An_evolutionary-theory-of_economic_change..pdf
175
http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/Outward-Looking-School-and-Ecosystem.pdf
176
http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/Outward-Looking-School-and-Ecosystem.pdf
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
variety of actors (i.e., living species)
and all nonliving elements in use
for education through teaching and
learning. The full variety of actors
involves the population inside school
(mainly teachers, principals, students,
other staff) as well as the population
outside school (entrepreneurs,
associations, institutions, parents,
families, friends and private persons
etc.).The non-living (abiotic) elements
inside this milieu are defined by all
available material means (buildings,
classrooms, external locations, tools, IT
resources, etc.) and they influence the
nature of interaction of populations.
All these populations are connected
through networks. They form together a
meta-population and inhabit the same
milieu. In the entrepreneurial school, the
nature of this milieu is characterised by
a shared entrepreneurial context.” 175
Whilst it ends regarding the specificity of
the entrepreneurial context, the rest of the
definition does explore and highlight the
importance of the interactions and ‘full variety’
of the living and nonliving, not so explicitly
highlighted in previous definitions. This shows
that it isn’t just the stakeholders themselves
who are important, but the encompassing
physical space, energy and tools within it. It
seems that without these facets we could not
define it as ecosystemic, drawing parallels
with the biological ecosystems and their
environment for inspiration.176
41
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
Exploring the variety of definitions we can see
some defining common threads, especially
examining them in connection to one another.
The main common element seems to be in
social ecosystems: a diverse, multi stakeholder
community of interconnected relationships.
Then, in relation to education, they must offer
a new way of organising learning. It’s also
highlighted that ecosystems do not just mean
the living elements, but also the spaces, tools
and technology which creates the full ‘working’
system. Descriptors of social ecosystems all
aim for a vastly improved organisation and in
the case of education, provision of learning.
There are significant parallels between
ecosystems in biology and those in the
society (including, but not limited to ones in
education) which are summarized in Table 1.
First, and perhaps the most important quality
of both biological and social ecosystems are
their diversity and the fact that despite this
diversity they remain interconnected as the
ecosystem emerges in a shared way. Second,
both biological and social ecosystems develop
multiple strategies to nurture or resource
themselves. These two traits allow ecosystems
to stay resilient and to adapt to varying
environmental conditions. Further to that, the
success of ecosystems is dependent upon how
well various species within them are collabo-
rating with each other, establishing all forms
of synergies (i.e., a situation when a total is
more than the sum of its parts, 1+1>2). Certain
species will play the role of “integrators” and
similarly, social ecosystems require various
forms of integration through elements such
as platforms and hosting spaces. Finally, as
biological ecosystems maximize their capacity
through interconnection and circulation of
resources, so do social ecosystems that
leverage collaboration and co creation by all
parties involved.
42
This comparison allows us to “set up bound-
aries” of what can or cannot be called an
ecosystem based on a normative, or biolog-
ically inspired definition. A system is likely
not an ecosystem if it has one or more of the
following features:
a system consisting of a single type of actor
(no diversity), or it consists of different types
of actors, but there is very low or no collabo-
ration between them,
a system is hierarchically governed by exter-
nally defined KPIs/goals, or it constantly
requires external organizing efforts,
a system is highly centralized or is dependent
upon a single source of (financial) resources
(e.g. government/philanthropic funding),or it
has a unifying platform but doesn’t have a
diverse group of users that actively use it,
a system evolves towards closure/isolation
For example, a network of schools cannot
be considered an ecosystem as there is no
diversity of types of actors or relationships.
The diversity of resources is mandatory to
be resilient and maintain themselves. This
is important to note, as sometimes people
perceive an ecosystem as something to be
created by one funder or the government, but
what happens is that if they step away, this
system dies. It will only become an ecosystem
when it has multiple sources of income and
human energy.
 2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

Ecosystem in Biology Ecosystem in Society

Diversity of participating species Diversity of participating actors

Decentralized governance

Diversity of food sources (food chains) Diversity of resources (incl. funding)

Symbiotic relationships Collaborations (1+1>2)

Hosting species Integrating solutions

(platforms, hubs)

Maximal capacity Maximal capacity reached by co creative rela-

tionship between all actors

Table 1: Comparison between biological and socio-economic ecosystems

43
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

2.2
Unsurprisingly, the common thread throughout
the definitions was that our overarching
education ecosystem provides a purpose that
our learning experiences are required for life.

Changing Forms:
This is important to highlight as it is notably
different to 1) other ecosystems which have

Defining Learning
their own specific focus or are recognised for
just being (like the biological ecosystems where

Ecosystems
purpose is murky at a high level) and 2) what
learning and/or education was previously seen
to be, which was a foundational point for life,
generally with age limits. It seems then that
By exploring how leaders in the field define our conception of what learning and education
learning ecosystems we discover how they can be has evolved toward a lifelong endeavor
are shaping a narrative and a vision that can and commitment which previously seemed
light the way forward. As researchers we were limited to the few, and often privileged.
curious to discover how similar or different
emerging definitions are, if people had a “How would you define an
shared definition that was referenced across
(education) (learning) (insert
initiatives or if they developed definitions
other) ecosystem?”
independently. We therefore inquired into both
definitions and names such as, educational In exploring how ecosystem leaders today
ecosystems, learning ecosystems or something define learning ecosystems they identify
else entirely. It is natural in an emerging field three main elements that are integral to their
that the terms are varied, our aim below is to essence of being:
distill out of our research thus far a common
thread of understanding.
1. Multifaceted
Examining the responses of learning
ecosystem leaders, we found that very few
shared an explicit definition of the meaning of
an education/learning ecosystem, but instead 2. Co-created
in their dialogue spoke about elements such
as its main qualities, behaviours, values, struc-
tures, players and aims. The qualities and
3. Purposeful
attributes shared by leaders, as also outlined
in a recent report by the Innovation Unit, are
often inspired by and modelled on natural
and biological metaphors. In particular they
highlight holding a progressively longer term
views, the importance of an organic, dynamic
system, as well as embracing the complexity
within which we exist.177

177
https://www.wise-qatar.org/app/uploads/2019/05/wise_report-rr.1.2019-web.pdf

44
 2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

Theme Elements

Multifaceted Integrates learning with other human activities

Combines environment and experience
Interdependent
Inter-Connected
Multilevel
Glocal: local & global
Many within each other
Communities / Networks
All/multiple stakeholders

Sustainable
Co-created Pragmatic
Inclusive
Diverse
Addressing multiple demands / intentions
Holistic
Ethical
Relational

Lifelong learning
Purposeful Development and growth
Serving individual and collective talent
Enabling economic opportunity
Enabling inclusivity / equality
Addressing local & global challenges
Universal wellbeing
Conscious evolution
Inner & Collective Transformation
Higher collective purpose
Sacredness of being
Joy

Table 2. Aspects of an ecosystem as defined by ecosystemic leaders

Whilst some definitions encompassed various
elements identified below, none did all. The
research showed that a learning ecosystem
was perceived to be multifaceted in a way
that is from both a people and process lens,
co-created with the values developed and
embedded, as well as purposeful, leading
us into the realm of also defining what is
education and learning.
The first and most common part of defining
ecosystems culminates around their multi-
faceted nature which aligned strongly with
the normative definitions and drivers of
ecosystems in the previous section. It is in this
multifaceted way that interdependent multi
stakeholder relationships exhibit diversity as a
multilevel, holistic, community centric ways of
being. This is a dynamic way of evolving which
45
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

Multifaceted / Purposeful
multilateral

Way of
organizing
individual
and collective
learning
process

Cocreated

Figure 7. Three dimensions of a learning ecosystem

has many aspects that must be balanced and “A learning ecosystem, includes all
developed over time. The necessity of the the key stakeholders: young people,
multi stakeholder actors is truly a central part
educators, school leaders, employers,
of what makes a learning ecosystem multi-
government, media, investors etc who
faceted. Whilst previous education systems
were more focused on just the school and the are all invested in what I would call a
children themselves, looking at just a limited shared purpose, this is different from a
number of stakeholders, the limitations of this shared vision, as this could be different
approach were a defining factor for ecosystem but the purpose of why they’ve come
leaders when perceiving what an ecosystem is,
together is the same. Essentially, at a
compared to what it is not.
simple level an ecosystem is multiple
One way of describing the range of multiple stakeholders”
stakeholders needed in an ecosystems can
Vishal Talreja,
be to recognize both the “first-liner’ and Founder of Dream a Dream
“second-liner” institutions (an example, and
not a comprehensive list of all institutions, is
provided in Figure 8):

46
 2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

Learner centered system as

an interconnected network of
learning institutions

Employers

Parents

School
Univercity

Banks
Online Learner Community
platform

Club
Media

Regulators

Communities
of practice

Learning ecosystem is shaped by a

circle of “influencers” that are actively
involved in its development

Figure 8. An example of a multi-faceted structure of learner centered ecosystems

47
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
First liner institutions are organizations such
as: schools, universities, clubs, museums,
communities and other various providers of
learning experiences that directly interact
with a learner, ideally as an interconnected
network, whilst
Second liner institutions are the “influ-
encers” that set out demands and operating
constraints for learning providers, yet do not
often engage in providing learning experi-
ences themselves.
It must be remembered that it is not enough
to have diverse stakeholder relationships.
To move into a multifaceted, ecosystemic
dynamic we must foster intentional, inter-
dependent relationships. As in nature,
ecosystems are ever changing because of the
interdependence of organisms of the same or
different species and the nonliving (physical)
elements of the environment. Seeking matter
and energy resources to sustain life, organisms
in an ecosystem interact with one another
in complex feeding hierarchies of producers,
consumers, and decomposers, which together
represent a food web. It seems that a learning
ecosystem ultimately does not, and cannot
exist without both the interaction and inten-
tionality of connecting when bringing together
the inclusive and diverse range of stake-
holders required. It is this collaborative nature
of bringing well-rounded, complementary
skills, knowledge and expertise, as well as
resources and much more to connect the dots
and operate within the complexity required to
support the overall development of education.
Ecosystems which connect deeply at their local
level, as well as understanding their work within
a global movement and context allow also to
see the power of interconnection and potential
stakeholder insights and partnerships. This is
not only happening at the organisational level
178
https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/liminal-leadership/
48
but also at the environmental level, connecting
to the things and places required to be multi-
faceted, such as technology, spaces or tools
needed. It is this way of operating and organ-
ising with intentional interconnectedness that
seems to be one of the crucial differences
between the old system approaches and the
new ecosystemic ones. When we do not pay
attention to these relationships, it seems that
we do not allow ourselves to operate in the
fullest way possible for becoming and growth.
The second key aspect is co-creation, integral
to designing and organising, involving the
role of all in learning design from children,
to educators to leaders. As we think about
education, it is this contextual relationship
process that our ecosystem requires to flourish.
Whilst previously an extremely siloed sector
fed into a belief of a linear progression in life,
this no longer mirrors the reality or complexity
of our current and future required learning
opportunities to thrive. This might be best
described as liminal leadership, of which there
is no expert but something all of us are and do,
points to the necessary collaboration required
for mutual learning to co-create an emerging
future. Inextricably linked to the future of
earth, as shared by Nora Bateson, “advocating
for the delicate ecologies of life and humanity
is both an active and contemplative practice.
Protection goes meta. Protection of me
becomes protection of you, and protection of
us includes protection of the ecology in which
we both breathe.178”
The co-creation processes to be truly ecosys-
temic should also be inclusive, diverse and
equitable to the maximum extent possible, and
in a sustainable way. This very much mirrors
the biological definitions we explored in the
previous section, showcasing the balance of
regenerative cycles. The learning ecosystem
leaders outline the need for use of co-creative
roles and leadership, collective knowledge
management and collective problem solving.
This enables them to act consistently in elabo-

LRNG
One of the most significant and sophistical experi-
ments to connect stakeholders across the in-school,
out-of-school, and online learning experiences and
career opportunities is LRNG179. LRNG works with
multiple stakeholders, such as the local government,
employers, the public library systems, community
colleges, or other local partners to open the door to
new opportunities for residents and help close work
gaps. Major national employers such as Amazon
Web Services and Unity Technologies are joining
in the effort, assisting in various ways with talent
development needs. LRNG’s goal is to enable young
people to define their purpose and find paths to
success. Through partnerships with communities,
corporations, educators and young people, LRNG
is trying to build an equitable future of talent for
the 21st century workplace that no longer leaves
youth out because of their zip code. LRNG use an
online platform which immerses young people in
connected communities of practice. It is through rich
playlists and curated content that youth earn digital
badges that unlock opportunities like micro-schol-
arships, internships and more. In 2018, Southern
New Hampshire University and LRNG, two of the
largest and most innovative education organiza-
tions in the country, merged to build a learning and
workforce solution for cities and employers across
the U.S. This shows an intentional, deepening of
177
https://www.lrng.org/
2. The Purpose of Learning1.Ecosystems
Introduction:
andThe
Emerging
Future of
Definitions
Learning
a relationship bringing together SNHU, a national
university committed to expanding access to higher
education and transforming lives through flexible and
affordable degree pathways with LRNG who curate
the experiences, resources, and people needed to
transform the way young people access and experi-
ence learning. Together, they can use their resources
and insights to build a city-based strategy to provide
learning and work opportunities for everyone from
high school students to working adults. This model is
designed to address workforce needs and increase
access to learning pathways for middle school-aged
students through working adults at little-to-no cost
using an urban ecosystem approach that focuses
on low-income populations. At a time when many
believe higher education inhabits the rigidly defined
space between high school and the workforce, they
are redefining the boundaries and creating personal-
ized pathways that provide learners opportunities, at
the right time, at the right place in their lives. They
use online and in person experiences combined into
playlists that equip youth with tangible skills and
understandings that they can apply in academic and
career settings. The LRNG platform enables young
people to access both local and national opportu-
nities from their computer, smartphone or tablet.
Youth find and pursue their interests with mentors
and peers, build new skills and habits wherever and
whenever they want.
49
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
rating complex decisions, to perceive oppor-
tunities and interests of each team member
and to integrate them effectively, to work on
a basis of win-win strategy. It enables reali-
zation of the value of each participant, to
build productive horizontal connections and
to create and launch changes on a local and
global scale. It requires competencies such as
empathy, communicative intelligence, flexi-
bility and negotiability, projecting intelligence,
skill to adjust tasks and areas of responsi-
bility with personal expertise, to listen and
hear each other, to act wholeheartedly, as well
as completely new norms of interaction like
equity and trust-based relations.
There is a critical aspect of environmental
and sustainable learning within the role of
the learning ecosystem. As education is the
basis of our personal and collective worldview,
lifestyle and way of doing something, the
way it affects the student or learner is much
more important than the novelty itself. Based
on the above mentioned observations and
insights from the interviews, a hypothesis
arises, that to form advantageous conditions
of “living for the greater good” we should
foster development of new social scenarios,
which replaces artificial inflexible hierarchical
systems ruled by thin elites, with low level
of personal responsibility and commitment.
Then ecosystem will allow people or commu-
nities to correlate their values, intentions and
actions with global processes, to understand
and accept different individualities and inter-
personal relations, cultural and social models.
The diversity of their nature is so important in
co-creating the whole. We can then see and
define our place in the ecosystem, this variety
is a progress factor, to create new meanings
and ideas at the intersection of different
worldviews and action models. It allows
many who have been excluded to share and
create a place of acknowledgment to previous
ignorances and injustices to our land and to
fellow people. This requires such competencies
50
“[Ecosystems] serve for the idea for it
being alive and vibrant, so a learning
ecosystem definition is a community
of people that have diverse roles and
perspectives and are coming together
to learn towards a common goal. Of
course the big difference with the
real ecosystem is that people agree
to the role, but a natural ecosystem
doesn’t, so it’s crucial for my definition
that people are agreeing and working
towards a co-created learning goal.
This is what makes learning ecosystem
and educational ecosystem different
in the sense that it’s a group of people
working towards a goal of learning
process for themselves, or others,
of course, as they are all learning
towards and providing learning
outcomes they’ve agreed upon. In a
pure ecosystem of learning the goal
is learning in education which implies
group learning as a way of achieving
that goal.”
Victoria Haro,
Director of Academics at the
Universidad Del Medio Ambiente
as system thinking, multiculturality, social and
ecological intelligence, global mindfulness
which consequently we must learn to cultivate
together.
The third major aspect that defines a learning
ecosystem, particularly compared to other
ecosystems, is its purpose. The primary
purpose in this case was defined by organizing
learning, but it was also frequently shared that

Labatoria Social Medellin
Labatoria Social Medellin180 an ecosystemic exper-
iment in Colombia that brings together leaders
from different sectors to explore the city, observe,
listen and talk. They seek to co-create strategies
for the prevention of youth violence in the city
born as a citizen initiative, with the support of the
Mayor’s Office of Medellín and with the execution
of the EAFIT University and the Mi Sangre Founda-
tion. They start from the premise that to change a
problem it is necessary to suspend the usual ways of
thinking and analyzing it, and make visits in which
feeling becomes a key element to understand that
we are all part of the system we seek to transform.
The work began initially with Mi Sangre, where at
different levels they empowered young people as
peacebuilders, as well as training teachers, parents
and head teachers to develop social and emotional
skills. Additionally, outside school they empowered
young people to learn more about social entrepre-
180
http://www.laboratoriosocialmed.co/index.html
2. The Purpose of Learning1.Ecosystems
Introduction:
andThe
Emerging
Future of
Definitions
Learning
neurship intentionally collaborating and connecting
with funders and NGOS, as well as the media and
universities to be in a state of constant dialogue.
There is now a deep and important connection with
second line actors, those within the community, such
as youtubers or researchers, not just actors directly
with youth but other perspectives. They met every
2 weeks and share their learning online, they also
meet once a month for a whole afternoon to share
examples and making cooking together an integral
part of their connection. They’ve visited places, such
as schools, youth offenders prison, cultural initia-
tives that use hip hop. The approach and dialogue is
deliberately very informal and organic, and they take
the time to walk through the neighbourhood, talk to
their communities, as well as sharing insights on how
to learn from the key question of how they can all
work together to co-create and reduce violence and
empower young people as leaders.
51
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

“A learning ecosystem is every aspect

of the community that enables learning
to happen. On a narrow sense when
someone is talking about how they
learn, they refer to courses/projects etc
but they are also just as likely to refer
to youtube which also becomes part of
our learning ecosystem. An ecosystem
is all the parts that create learning
environment for an individual. But
then the collective learning ecosystem
is a broader definition, it’s a learning
community, who choose to interact with
each other in order to promote learning
at every opportunity”
Stephen Harris,
LearnLife
the purpose also relates to other elements such
as universal wellbeing, inner and collective
transformation, ‘higher’ purpose, development
and growth, joy and the importance of raising
evolving consciousness collectively. This differs
from the normative definitions explored as it
truly relates to this specific type of ecosystem.
Alexander Laszlo articulates this shift in
purpose towards education serving thriv-
ability and fostering empathy for a wisdom-
based society. It includes the following four
integrated dimensions of thriving:
Intra-Personal: Inner flourishing, listening
to self, cultivating knowledge of self, intuition,
empathy, sense of authenticity and aliveness,
and ultimately leading a happy, healthy and
fulfilling life
Interpersonal: conviviality with others,
communities, learning with and from each
other, engaging in open, considerate, joyful
action in order to enable collective wisdom
Trans-Species: ecosystemic listening to and
acknowledgment of our interdependence and
ultimate unity with nature and all living beings,
our ability to live and co-evolve with all of the
biosphere
Trans-Generational: evolutionary, integral,
hearing the flow of what was, what is being
and becoming, finding ability to play one’s own
part in this dance181
“An education ecosystem is basically
an education that gets to the inner
core of personal transformation, it’s
not a superficial type of education, not
just to acquire skills but to go directly
to what is transformative. It’s aiming
at an education system that provides
education to people that changes them
innerly, to discover themselves and
their potential, their relationship to
other people, nature, obligations they
have, joy in sharing things. That type
of education would make for a good
system.
Gabriel Camara

52

Based on the insights from the literature and
drawing upon the definitions shared across
the interviews a working definition of learning
ecosystems was developed.
a. Learning ecosystems are webs of
interconnected relationships organ-
ising lifelong learning.
b. They are diverse, dynamic and
evolving, connecting learners and
Industrial Education
Institution-focused education driven by
cognitive learning and passivation of
learners (e.g. lecturing or memorizing)
Education prepares learners for professional
level
Learning occurs within specialized learning
institutions (e.g. schools or colleges)
Learning is organized in a limited number of
pre-set “trajectories” through standardized
“batches” most often grouped by age and
gender
Educational system is often disconnected
from the needs of economy and society,
driven by its own standards and practices
Educational system is predominantly
governed by national governments
Table 3. Comparison between industrial and ecosystemic education and learning
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
community to foster individual and
collective capacity.
c. They have three purposes, dedicated
to co-creating thrivable futures for
people, places and our planet (see
section 2.3)
Some of the critical changes that the new
paradigm encompasses are presented in
Table 3.
Learning Ecosystems
Learner-focused education driven by experi-
ence based forms of learning and proactive
learner engagement (e.g. project- or play-based
learning)
Lifelong learning blended at the personal, social
and professional levels
Learning occurs across networks of specialized
and non-specialized learning providers and
venues (e.g. workplaces and public spaces)
Learning is organized as a personalized learning
“journey”, occurring individually and in various
“peer” groups
Learning ecosystem is interconnected with, and
co-created by, various stakeholders within the
economy and society
Learning ecosystem is governed through an
interaction of intentionally diverse and inclu-
sive local and global stakeholders, including
businesses, social movements, local and online
communities
53
1. The
2. Introduction:
Purpose of
The
Learning
Future of
Ecosystems
Learning and Emerging Definitions
Redes de Tutoría
Over the past 20 years, Redes de Tutoría182 has
sought to transform students and teachers by
developing tutorial relationships and harnessing the
power of one to one dialogue. Instead, tutees enjoy
greater autonomy and choose what interests them
most from a selection of inquiry-based projects
called ‘Temas’. Supported by individualized guidance
from the teacher, students build on their prior knowl-
edge with self-directed study. Once their study is
completed, students reflect on their learning before
presenting their Tema to the class. The presentation
not only builds confidence and self-esteem but also
creates a shared learning culture within the class-
room. Peer learning and mentoring is an essential
element of the Redes de Tutoría approach. Students
are empowered to be both learners and teachers.
Following the completion of Tema, tutees become
tutors and are trained to support others who choose
to study that topic. Through analogies, examples,
and questions, teachers and tutors guide the tutees
to find their own answers. Within this pedagogy,
the process is more important than the answer and
students are often encouraged to try to find more
than one solution to a given problem. Students feel
valued and more willing to take chances and make
182
https://redesdetutoria.com/
54
mistakes within the supportive learning community.
Another important aspect of Redes de Tutoría is
the way that families and the wider community are
included within the tutorial networks. As a result
of this, school and education have moved into and
become part of the local community. One teacher
can transform a group of students who, in turn,
transform the community. The dynamic has changed
and education is more social and available to all.
Paradoxically, fringe public schools are becoming
the harbingers of change. The event that most
ambitiously projected tutorial practices into the
public school realm was a visit to a one-room rural
middle school by the national Mexican Undersecre-
tary of Education in 2008. Impressed by 21 students
indistinctly teaching and learning under the direction
of a single teacher, the Undersecretary saw it fit to
promote the practice among willing teachers working
in similar school situations. Interest in Redes de
Tutoría grew rapidly following the release in 2013
of a moving documentary, which demonstrated
the power of the Redes de Tutoría approach. Now
schools across Mexico have adopted the technique
and it has spread to be used in vulnerable communi-
ties in South America and Southeast Asia.

“It’s more defined for its features and
geometry than a definition by itself ,
but maybe it could be an environment
in which the actors can get the most
value, learning and practices and actors
can be recognised and the environment,
in which at the same time, actors can
develop their leadership and scale
their vision easily, maybe is for me the
difference between an ecosystem and a
platform or a program or other things
in education.”
Ismael Palacín,
Director of Fundacio Jaume Bofill
Whilst this exploration has gone some way
in furthering insight across the education
ecosystem community on what it is, ultimately
it is important to remember that learning
ecosystems, as with biological, natural or social
ones, can be defined at a given place and/or
functional scale but are nested within larger
181
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325132603_Education_for_the_future_The_emerging_paradigm_of_thrivable_education
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
ones, while also containing smaller ones with
which they exchange matter, energy and infor-
mation. Whilst it is required to map learning
ecosystems for co-design, development and
growth, this makes their boundaries in many
ways difficult to describe and in essence will
be ever-changing. We can do our best to define
ecosystems but it is not possible, at this stage,
to capture or encompass possible learning
ecosystems happening within and across each
other exactly due to the dynamic nature, within
which large quantities of matter, energy and
information flow, locally and globally, offline
and online, as well as in many ways that are
not yet understood or even comprehensible.
Learning enables society and culture to evolve,
as an environment where people act and
live their lives, and through which reality is
perceived and constructed. Therefore, when
we are defining ecosystems the very least we
can do is to encompass the combination of
the multiple variants and characteristics that
are required for it to truly be an education and
learning ecosystem, as opposed to more tradi-
tional methods.
55
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
2.3
Purpose of
Learning
Ecosystems
Throughout this research ecosystem leaders
consistently underscored that today’s complex
problems cannot be solved by segmented/
siloed approaches. They see the negative
outcomes focusing on competition has resulted
in and become drawn to understanding how we
might operate within and improve the complex
systems in which we evolve. They recognise
that “being in the world is more than living
on it, it demands an ecosystemic approach,
the construction of a new social fabric, as
new structures emerge in the socio-cultural
learning niches and develop critical capacities
to operate changes in the system.”183 Many
of these leaders are motivated to work on
ecosystemic projects having begun their work
on a singular theme or area in education, for
example how to improve life skills for young
people, and will create a program or organi-
sation to address this. They often realise that,
if they are successful in doing so of course, that
whilst this has made some improvement in the
world, to have greater impact and improve the
lives of more children they need to scale. At
HundrED184 for example, they highlight many
examples of specific innovations in education
that are improving education for impact and
183
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255961837_Building_a_New_World_An_Ecosystemic_Approach_for_Global_Change_Devel-
opment_Design
184
https://hundred.org/en
185
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/9212803/1996_kasserryan_pspb.pdf?response-content-disposition=in-
line%3B%20filename%3DFurther_examining_the_American_dream_Dif.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Cre-
dential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20191104%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20191104T144658Z&X-
Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=75d96a8d620a27d4a8aef286133ee8f077722489b54db8f09-
ff42fb9ad7f74be
186
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED464791
56
scale. Across this collection there are innova-
tions at different stages of this journey, yet a
much smaller proportion are working ecosys-
temically to create change. Those who have
typically shared their story of evolving and
see their work very much as part of the whole,
want to understand the interconnection and
relationships between their work and how they
can improve the ecosystem for all. These goals
are very much, “intrinsic” goals with a deep
desire to help make the world a better place185.
Yet they come up against many difficult
challenges, recognising that change depends
on sufficient relationships and collective and
connective intelligence systemic aspects
of organisational change. As recognised by
Stephen Sterling in his work186 on educating
for sustainability, significant challenges are
understood and accommodated within the
norms of the existing system, rather than
changing the system to be congruent with the
challenge. Complex systems theory, like that
researched by Donella Meadows in Thinking in
Systems, shows us how humans find it partic-
ularly difficult to make decisions that decrease
output, compared to increasing input187.
Meadows talks about this through stocks and
flows and how we seem to focus more easily
on stocks than on flows, particularly what
flows in, over what flows out. Let’s consider
this in relation to her bathtub (Figure 9) and
oil examples.
“We sometimes miss seeing that we can fill
a bathtub not only by increasing the inflow
rate, but also by decreasing the outflow rate.
Everyone understands that you can prolong
the life of an oil based economy by discov-

Water in tub
Inflow
Figure 9. Managing inflows and outflows in a “bathtub” system188
ering new oil deposits. It seems to be harder
to understand that the same result can be
achieved by burning less oil. A breakthrough in
energy efficiency is equivalent, in its effect on
the stock of available oil, to the discovery of a
new oil field—although different people profit
from it.”
Ecosystem leaders are taking the time to
understand this problem and are deeply
motivated in addressing it, having usually
experienced the problem with the education
system themselves in relation to their projects
and work, or they are perhaps coming from a
systems background. Working on improving
learning and education in particular is also
another important motivator for our ecosystem
leaders: it is recognised that at its best it can
develop incredible opportunities, experiences
and qualities for a person, such as questioning,
innovation and creativity, as well as enabling
us to recognize the powerful forces that drive
unsustainable living and develop self-confi-
dence and organizational skills189 190. What many
are experiencing however is that education is
often doing the opposite, particularly normal-
ising the acceptance of unsustainable living as
being normal; and passivization of people to
wait for others to take action.191 Our ecosystem
leaders realise that the quality of institutions
187
https://wtf.tw/ref/meadows.pdf
188
https://wtf.tw/ref/meadows.pdf
189
https://capacitybuildingnetwork.org/article3/
190
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255961837_Building_a_New_World_An_Ecosystemic_Approach_for_Global_Change_Devel-
opment_Design
191
https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/esd/ESD_Publications/Competences_Publication.pdf
192
https://www.oecd.org/site/progresskorea/globalproject/43463081.pdf
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
Outflow
and incentive structures is more critical than
the specific individual motivations192.
This is particularly important to note as
teachers, as well as many others working
across the education space are not the ‘issue’
and cannot be “fixed” by looking solely at
individual issues. Take teacher dropout, for
example, which is often cited as an issue in
education. This is not because the teachers
are inherently uninterested in education or are
seeking monetary gain or reward somewhere
else but that they feel totally unmotivated by
the effects of the system on the profession
itself. This is a symptom of a wider, ‘wicked’
problem across the ecosystem where a lack of
time, space etc. has occurred due to a freefall
in quantitative metrics required as the ‘top
level’ seek to understand why and how children
today are learning in relation not only to each
other in a local context but also the wider world.
Instead of realising that to improve the quality
of learning itself teachers need time to build
relationships and focus on their own learning
growth and development in order to bring this
back into their school, we’ve seen an increase
in the amount of time required to complete
additional tasks given that are disconnected
from the above.
57
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
Contributors to this research also recognise
that problem solving implies dynamic and
complex configurations and are seeking to find
optimal ways of doing this at different scales
around the world, often integrating an ecosys-
temic approach not only in education but also
in technology, environment, wellbeing, health,
politics, business and so on for mutual support
Purpose Elements
Personal Personal
Self care
Personal well being
Sustain personal income
Connection to community and world
Develop unique value
Place-Based Foster skills and opportunities
Create talent and teams
Enable lifelong learning
Encourage potential for all
Innovation
Create changemakers
Work collaboratively
Collective wellbeing
Planetary Increase systemic changes
Create collective capacity for trans-
formation
Cultivate consciousness
Connective and collective intelligence
for collective wisdom & growth
Guide development of countries /
continents/world
Skeleton/nervous system of global
civilisation
Table 4. Aspects of Personal, Place-based and Planetary purposes nominated by ecosystemic leaders
58
and improvement in a dynamic equilibrium.
Considering the responses from our interviews,
the education and learning ecosystem seems
to provide a multitude of purposes which are
applicable at three different levels to incor-
porate individual and collective needs through:
the personal, place and planetary levels. The
personal level focuses specifically on improving
Find purpose and meaning
Develop love of lifelong learning
Learning outcomes
Heart/Head/Hand
Develop agency
Become changemaker
Provide support
Networks of support
Healthy democracy
Reveal community wisdom
Transform local community
Achieving group defined learning
outcomes
Cultivate process of healing
Universal well being
Link together different ways of
becoming
Harmonize digital & human
Recognition of unique purpose and
capabilities of humans
Improve equity, inclusivity & diversity
 2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

Planetary

Place

Personal

Figure 10. Personal, Place and Planetary Purposes

59
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

aspects such as individual growth and self care,

whilst the place focuses on the development of
local community and the learning opportunities
within it, to be defined within their context,
and the planetary focuses on our connection to
wider global needs of the world.
In regard to a local or place-based purpose of
an ecosystem, the work of ecosystem leaders is
primarily driven pragmatically by actual needs,
local challenges and opportunities, that are
rooted in local or regional context and history.
Ecosystems are purposeful, and so their impact
has to be self-evident for all key stakeholders:
a boost in vocational skills that address the
needs of local economy and close the skills
gap, a growth in the capacity of teams that are
able to create technological innovations and
startups, a shift in the mindset of citizens that
creates greater community action and reduces
the environmental footprint. In order to attract
the necessary funding and engage the support
of institutions and the public, ecosystemic
projects need to deliver value to the majority
of their stakeholders. Inherent motivations to
organize ecosystemically include:
1. Immediate motivation. That working
ecosystemically will serve the immediate
local issue, a deep need that is seen by their
community, industrial partners, economy,
requests of population. This need is infinitely
rooted in the context and culture of a specific
place.
2. Overarching motivation. In the inter-
connection to a wider planetary movement
towards universal wellbeing at the global
scale ecosystem leaders see themselves as
connected to a part of a larger movement.
3. Personal motivation. Their work is also
innately connected to them and their devel-
opment, they want to organize learning and
education for themselves so they can live in
the world this way.
Adriane Robke’s student and consultant at the Network
Weavers193 motivation is clear, believing that
“our current cultures and mindsets
endanger life on earth. The challenges
we face are highly complex, wicked
problems. These problems cannot be
solved alone. Collaboration is a must,
yet effective collaboration is still too
rare. This is my motivation to weave:
building bridges so we change the
world together.”
And why does he want to specifically do this?
“In short: Because I love life. Like all of
it. The challenges, the opportunities, the
valleys and mountains. I cannot stand
the trajectory that we destroy life on
earth. And with it the chance to create
and enjoy the beauty that is within and
around us. So I take responsibility. I

193
https://www.spreading-inspiration.com/
194
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Mythologies.html?id=wsGDVdYoRA4C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_
esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

60
 2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

get courageous. I do what needs to be learning opportunity. We see parallels in the

done to serve Earth Community in this
particular point in time.”
These testimonies show in essence the fluidity of the
thread between the personal, place and planetary and
the clear motivations woven throughout.
Through the above we see the beginnings
of a unifying narrative that binds purpose,
motivation, and actors within ecosystems
together in common cause. The role of unifying
narratives, stories, or myths as highlighted by
scholars such as Roland Barthes194 and Joseph
Campbell is to shape our collective under-
standing of the world and our place within
it.195 This applies not only to our ancestral
stories but to our modern myths, the stories
we believe in today and are motivated by are
shaping our society. The idea of myth creation
has been extensively applied in organizational
management and marketing196 and suggests
that storytelling and culture creation is critical
in creating shared purpose and aligning shared
values.197 Part of the work therefore of co-cre-
ating learning ecosystems is to create new
narratives that center the personal, place and
planetary purposes.
field of psychology and neuroscience, for
example, where studies on compassion self
compassion can result in fewer depressive
symptoms, less negative emotion, emotional
resilience and more positive emotion198.
There has been a rise in schools, projects and
work shifting towards practices built around
each person, not around a sample portrait
of “standard learner”, as is still typical for
formal education199. Usually a person is made
to fit the standard. This is not aimed to raise
awareness of self and others, or to value the
differences, working out solutions based on
cooperation instead of competition. Moving
towards learner centric education enables self
directed, more autonomous approaches. It is in
this direction that many educators and leaders
are utilizing these ways to change the face of
education today so it’s unsurprising that this
was highlighted as one of the most important
purposes of ecosystemic education. Other
examples of these pedagogies that strive for
deeper learning to facilitate learner centric
approaches are: place-based learning200,
learning-by-doing201, student-led learning202,
outdoor learning203, blended learning204 or
experiential learning205. Whilst most elements

At the personal level we must find ways to “We’re all ingredients in the system so
develop our love and ability to learn throughout the way in which we are creating the
life, as well as develop our personal capacities change is critical to the change we are
and abilities to connect with each other on
trying to create.”
this mission. If we don’t start with ourselves as
the learner we lose an opportunity to connect Daniel Ford,
with the essence of an authentic and useful Forum for the Future

195
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Power_of_Myth.html?id=2GOIGuh5GJ4C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
196
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778293
197
https://belonging.berkeley.edu/notesonaculturalstrategy?mc_cid=d2fbc76dd4&mc_eid=bd552e09ab
198
https://self-compassion.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SC.SE_.Well-being.pdf
199
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87567555.2012.752338
200
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003172170208300806?journalCode=pdka
201
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Felder/publication/279589632_Learning_by_doing/links/559aa7cb08ae793d13820e03/
Learning-by-doing.pdf
202
http://web.mit.edu/jrankin/www/pbl/steele.pdf
203
http://www.outlab.ie/forums/documents/the_value_of_school_science_review_march_2006_87320_141.pdf
204
http://www.click4it.org/images/a/a8/Graham.pdf
205
http://www.d.umn.edu/~kgilbert/educ5165-731/Readings/experiential-learning-theory.pdf

61
1. The
2. Introduction:
Purpose of
The
Learning
Future of
Ecosystems
Learning and Emerging Definitions
Enrol Yourself
Enrol Yourself organizes Learning Marathons, a 6
month peer-led learning accelerator designed to
integrate into life alongside work. It is a space to
tackle a specific professional, personal or societal
challenge of importance, tackling it as a live project,
to add real value to a person’s life and/or portfolio.
The opportunity consists of a dozen peers who are
also working on something that motivates them.
Pooling ideas, skills, experience, perspectives and
momentum works to create a rich ‘soil’ that fuels
growth. It is an interdisciplinary learning environ-
ment, fit for upgrading 21st Century capabilities like
collaboration, complex problem solving and continual
learning. A host, trained in the Enrol Yourself
philosophy and approaches, is there to guide, not to
lead and participates alongside trainees through a
carefully crafted 6 month Path that provides struc-
ture and accountability to keep momentum, whilst
harnessing the collective potential of the group.
Participants also have access to the wider combined
network of the group and associated connections,
62
and access to Enrol Yourself community activi-
ties such as an annual ‘Enrol Camp’ retreat. Enrol
Yourself operates in a decentralised way, training
hosts to develop agency and co-facilitation in their
methodology, giving them access to their toolkit and
resources, then supporting them to take the respon-
sibility and autonomy to start things up in their local
area. Their peer-led learning approach relies on
ecosystemic principles, there is no one teacher that
provides information and participants have to learn
to navigate the resources of the peer group. They
also partner with other organisations to underpin
learning experiences that they wish to initiate
or host. They intentionally empower facilitators,
coaches, educators and people organizers to be able
to host learning journeys wherever they are. They are
creating a ‘grow your own’ lifelong learning system
where power is far more distributed and the system
as a whole is therefore far more responsive and
emergent. In this way they have created a system
better suited to the rapid changes that are being
brought and will continue to be brought this century.

of this approach and pedagogy are not ‘new’
and have been advocated for at least a century
by the likes of Dewey, Piaget, Montessori and
Vygotsky, it is their incorporation which moves
us towards more learner-centric, ecosystemic
learning.
Adults who can both share their learning and
learn themselves, becoming more personal to
the student, require an increasing diversity
of options, coming back to some of the
early biomimicry terminology explored when
defining what an ecosystem is. Laura Hay,
one of our ecosystem leaders working at
Ashoka, shares that “the purpose is to create a
dynamic and holistic infrastructure for growth
and development throughout our lives and
provide a more diverse learning experiences
too, way more than you could find in the typical
classroom.” All of which should go beyond that
typical “phase of learning, to develop our own
sense of need and purpose” further highlighted
by Katherine Prince another fellow researcher
of education ecosystems at Knowledge-
Works206.
The reality of making learning personal in the
current state of 30+ students seems difficult
and extremely daunting, especially when
teachers are tasked with preparing students
for standardized tests and set learning
outcomes. So, while the positives of person-
alized education are undeniable, implemen-
tation can seem impossible without the right
support. As the learning system is in a state of
transition Big Picture Learning207 schools are
striving to close the gap between the current
reality above and ecosystemic approaches.
They have created, and continue to evolve,
a personalized education approach through
advisors leading around 15 learners each,
whom they form personalized relationships
with. Each learner stays in the same advisory
206
https://knowledgeworks.org/
207
https://hundred.org/en/innovations/big-picture-learning
208
http://www.daneshnamehicsa.ir/userfiles/file/Resources/5-1)%20Change/INTRO_%20Revisiting%20The%20Culture%20of%20the%20
School.pdf
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
for four years, identifying interests, figuring
out how they learn best and what motivates
them. Parents and families are also actively
involved in the process, helping to shape the
student’s continuation of learning. Secondly,
real-world internships are a key part of this
approach as the learner and advisor work
together to find exciting opportunities best
suited to their interest. The result is an increas-
ingly learner-centered experience, where
students are actively invested in their learning
and feel challenged to pursue their interests by
a supportive group of educators, community,
experts and family members.
Zhara Davidson, Founder of Enrol Yourself, for
example shared that
“[the purpose of the ecosystem]
depends on the learner, my assumption
would be that an ecosystem approach
vs traditional would allow for purpose
to be more variable dependent on the
individual learner, to take pathways
according to own needs and purposes.
I think this is a better use of resources
and to do so inclusively.”
At the place-based level we must find ways to
develop our connection to each other within
our locality, identifying local needs, as well as
the ways we can serve them and gain oppor-
tunities. When we remain solely insular we are
not acting ecosystemically towards supporting
the benefit of more equitable, diverse or
relational solutions. As shared by Sarason,
“Learning is a process that takes place in
an interpersonal context, in which powerful
factors like motivation, understanding,
affection, reflection and the like, are always
present. Of the many factors that intervene
and modify the process, the strength of willing
63
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
to learn may well be the most fateful.208 At
the place based level too it is important to
recognise that, as Vishal Talreja shares “each
ecosystem can define its own shared purpose.
It’s important that the ecosystem defines it
so the shared accountability comes in.” Previ-
ously, education systems have been defined
at a top level and led by predominantly higher
level institutions or governments, as opposed
to allowing for greater autonomy whilst
joining and sharing a wider set of ecosystemic
principles at the place-based level. There has
been a rise in Place-Based education which
is rooted in seeing the local place as the
classroom which can nourish and feed both
the leader and the community. Skill devel-
opment is rooted in aspects like inquiry-based
and design thinking development as learners
see local needs and are able to work collec-
tively and intentionally to solve them together
in real-world scenarios.209
With this notable recognition of our developing
a connection to place, we start to see projects
developing on the micro level that allow for
greater learning outside the classroom recon-
necting back to the city, nature and beyond.
An example of this would be Seppo a platform
originating in Finland210, which gets children
excited about learning through games in the
real world while developing group work skills,
media literacy, critical thinking, and digital
storytelling. The teacher can set the game
in or out of the classroom, usually going out
into the city centre, parks or even a museum.
The teacher communicates with the students
using Seppo and follow them on a map using
GPS enabling physical activity as part of the
learning experience. The idea for Seppo was
born when high school history teacher Riku
Alkio was visiting Rome on a field trip with
his students. The students created “Amazing
Race Church Edition” which took them to
209
https://www.gettingsmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/What-is-Place-Based-Education-and-Why-Does-it-Matter-3.pdf
210
https://seppo.io/en/
211
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Embracing_Complexity.html?id=YlUbCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
212
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716203260082?journalCode=anna
64
churches all around Rome. When the students
were given time off, instead of shopping and
visiting cafés the students headed back to the
churches — to learn more. Whilst this game
itself is not transforming the ecosystem at a
high level, it is a clear example of ways at the
individual and local level learning can instantly
hold greater purpose and transcend traditional
educational boundaries of the classroom into
the real-world. As Jean Boulton points out that,
“change really only happens locally... therefore
it is necessary to familiarize the learner with the
connections that are most local, or proximate,
to the learner. This provides the learner with
an opportunity to connect what is meaningful
to them to that which it is dependent upon.”211
“The purpose of the learning ecosystem
is that everyone can and should think of
themselves as a learner and educator,
to add value to each other. The pur-
pose would be to reveal all the amazing
knowledge, wisdom and abilities in a
community and find a way to connect
and learn from each other. That you
don’t have to have a PhD or be an ‘ex-
pert’ to offer something to a learning
ecosystem. Just like a natural ecosys-
tem, an ant is just as important and
we need to recognise that we all play a
critical role.”
Joshua Schachter,
Founder of Community Share
The purpose of a learning ecosystem is also
to unite networked stakeholders in an evolving
process of learning and positive development
that supports us to create desired futures at

ImagiNation Afrika
Since 2007 ImagiNation Afrika has developed
programs which have expanded paradigms around
learning, around play, and around what African
child-centered spaces look and feel like. They do
this through exhibitions, programs and playspaces,
promoting a culture of critical thinking and how
children perceive themselves and their abilities to
contribute to the economic and social well-being of
their culture and context. The organization’s core
values of thinking globally and acting locally have
allowed it, in conjunction with local partners, to
create and maintain spaces that spark imagination
through activities and hands-on learning for more
than 8,000 children. They create tools and training
through a center for the dissemination of parenting
and teacher resources and research, particularly
for babies and young children engaging the cultural
and social factors that support positive parenting
reinforces positive child development. Through
design and products they model how public spaces
2. The Purpose of Learning1.Ecosystems
Introduction:
andThe
Emerging
Future of
Definitions
Learning
may become informal learning centers for children
in an effort to support and build the capacity of
other public spaces to address and include children.
Imagination Afrika also believes that the environ-
ment is the third teacher, and that public spaces play
a role in a child’s development and promote the use
of authentic and natural materials that reflect and
validate the world of children. They are committed
to advocacy and communications by partnering with
leaders in education, health, nutrition, and media
to become advocates for child development and
children’s rights to play and thrive, as well as actively
creating and sharing ecosystems by facilitating
connections between local, regional and global part-
ners to support mutual learning, mentoring and prac-
tice. They have weaved together multiple aspects to
improve lives at the individual and collective level,
whilst holding the thread of the planetary connection
at the heart too through partnerships and programs
which all learn and feed into each other, from the
practical design to the media spheres.
65
1. The
2. Introduction:
Purpose of
The
Learning
Future of
Ecosystems
Learning and Emerging Definitions
OpEPA
Luis Camargo, Founder of OpEPA213 in
Colombia, over 20 years ago started recon-
necting children and youth to nature one on one.
He thought this was the most powerful way to
transform individuals. After several years and
100,000 students it was evident, if they wanted
to scale they needed a different approach. They
looked into nature and realized the main reason
for wealth, resilience and adaptability in nature
came from the interactions and interdependen-
cies that defined the ecosystems. Recognizing
this made them start taking an ecosystemic
approach focusing on the interjection of indi-
vidual change and learning ecosystems; with
this expanding the concept of environmental
education into a holistic nature-based approach
to educational transformation. This purpose
responds to the ecological planetary crisis.
OpEPA’s mission is to reconnect children and
youth with the Earth so that they act in an envi-
ronmentally sustainable manner. Through this
reconnection, children and youth may become
agents in reducing environmental degradation
and promoting a more sustainable genera-
tion of decision makers. OpEPA has promoted
the Children and Nature Movement focusing
on breaking the cycle that produces Nature
Deficit Disorder. Whilst OpEPA cannot bring all
of Colombia’s urban youth into nature, instead
they bring nature to Colombia’s youth. Through
agreements with local districts, there are direct
services, interactive on campus and off campus
classes for students taught by OpEPA staff, as
213
https://opepa.org/
66
well as reaching the entire system of science
education with teacher training and easy-to-use
manuals that help educators make in-school
learning more relevant to their students’ daily
lives. OpEPA supplements better teaching with
easy access to nature and has created the “eco-
bus,” a fleet of traveling science and nature
study centers parked in school lots throughout
Colombia. They combine simple science tools
of the eco-bus with pristine nature and trained
professionals to facilitate the learning process.
While partnerships with public districts have
proven effective so far, Luis Alberto taps into
Vicky Colbert’s network of hundreds of progres-
sive Escuela Nueva214 schools to accelerate
his spread throughout Colombia. There is also
an excursion component to this work, trips
that can take many forms, ranging from a day
to a month in length and from simple hikes to
intense wilderness experiences. But they all
share one common tie, a pedagogical method
that draws deep ties between participants
and the world around them. OpEPA staff work
closely with youth to examine nature while
simultaneously questioning their everyday
interactions with the environment and their
place in the world’s ecosystem. These experi-
ences ultimately aim to produce what Luis calls
the “magic moment,” when a young person is
suddenly and profoundly struck by a new sense
of his or her role in nature and society. Partici-
pants break existing paradigms and simultane-
ously create space for new and lasting para-
digms to form.

Whether classroom- or wilderness-based,
OpEPA’s environmental education programs
begin by sparking a connection between young
people and nature. Luis Alberto sees that this
interest can only be sustained through concrete
opportunities for action, but he also recog-
nizes that providing these opportunities is not
OpEPA’s core competency. So OpEPA draws
on a menu of follow-up programs created by
other organizations, each giving young people
leadership roles and the chance to take the
initiative in improving the environment around
them. He has, for example, established partner-
ships with Eco-Clubs program and the Austra-
lian Clean-up-the-World Campaign to provide
OpEPA participants the opportunity to put their
environmental leadership to practice. Berto-
lini has trained OpEPA staff to manage and
guide youth through the creation and execu-
tion of their own environmental ventures while
OpEPA has engaged young leaders in their own
initiatives by launching Colombia’s arm of the
Clean-up-the World Campaign. These three
major components of OpEPA’s work education,
excursions, and action allow development at
the personal, place and planetary levels of the
ecosystem. There is also a focus on equity, as
OpEPA works in all types of school districts,
including affluent, and plan outdoor adventures
for groups with mixed socioeconomic back-
grounds.
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
an individual, collective and systemic level,
connecting to our planet. Educators are
increasingly more aware of their pivotal role
in connecting character development212 to
individual wellbeing; to the values, attitudes
and wellbeing of the societies in which we live
and to the wellbeing of other species and our
planet. It is a state of going with the flow rather
than against it, that each element of personal,
place-based and planetary wellbeing is wholly
interconnected and interdependent. As a
response we see a rise in projects that either
directly focus on improving our connection to
nature or are deliberately incorporating ways
to be more regenerative and reflect the laws
of the natural ecosystems.
Whilst the three purposes help us to envisage
the particular aspects that are important at
these levels, it is also important to note that
they are still extremely loose boundaries
(Figure 11). As an individual we might be
able to consider our personal growth at the
centre, for example a child or a facilitator,
but the development of our local, community,
place-based ecosystem alongside the global
community and connection to planetary needs
all feed into each other simultaneously. What
is useful about this framing is that it highlights
the purpose of the ecosystem often lies in
its ability to interact at the boundaries of
ourselves, interconnected and interdependent
at multiple levels. To explore an exercise using
our PPP tool go to Appendix 3 to map your
own learning ecosystem and the relationships
between these three levels.
Whilst not everyone we interviewed may have
used the specific categorisation of personal,
place and planetary levels, these three
critical levels are referenced as key levels
that were addressed as key to the purpose
of an ecosystem. That to only think or focus
on one or two is not truly ecosystemic, even
if stakeholders are working together towards
improving learning. They might be closer to
ecosystemic ways of working, but it does not
67
2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions
fully encompass the aspect and purpose of
it as a whole. The connection between these
aspects allow it to act as a ‘self evolving
organism’ as long as we acknowledge the inter-
connectedness and its influence “by empow-
ering all actors that they are part of it and can
improve together” shares Zineb Mouhyi from
WISE. Increasing interconnectedness and its
influence at a personal, place and planetary
level requires truly ecosystemic approaches.
“I think it’s [purpose] is an urgent
need to create or grow learning
ecosystems which have a specific
focus on empowering everyone in
that ecosystem to live for universal
wellbeing. An ecosystem for me
can start at the smallest level, an
individual person’s learning ecosystem
and everyone has one. My learning
ecosystems are, for example, parents,
peers, religious leaders and teachers,
school admins, policy makers etc. not
just those who directly influence but
those also at the backend too, the
indirect influences. I think the urgent
need we now have as a species and
a planet is to draw attention to these
learning ecosystems, at the smallest
level locally up to global. The learning
ecosystems are nested within each
other and overlapping and might
overlap if we share the same friends/
leaders etc. My conviction is that we
need to draw out and draw attention
to and strengthen these learning
ecosystems for every individual so we
all have the best possible chance of
having learning experiences through
214
https://escuelanueva.org/portal1/en/
68
which they become empowered to
live for universal wellbeing. This
nested idea of personal wellbeing,
which means my physical well being/
mental wellbeing and my spiritual and
emotional wellbeing and then above
that is societal well being, such as
social relations, work, money, economy,
political and then above that is
planetary wellbeing, for example other
species, soil, air, water, wellbeing of
climate. The idea is that to optimise
this complex idea of universal wellbeing
you need everybody to make their best
contribution to optimise it, so people
need to be aware of and equipped and
inclined to do that.”
Ross Hall,
The Weaving Lab
“Healing is my first thought for the
ecosystems purpose. It currently has
radically fragmented knowledge,
culture, communities and ecosystems
that we need to be entering into
a phase of recognising the unique
purpose and capabilities of humans,
given the existential threat of
automation that is looming large
on every horizon. It is time for us to
really consider how it is that we are
cultivating our own abilities and the
processes of healing which requires a
more integrated mind and how we can
be regenerating the health systems
which have been radically disintegrated.
We have all kinds of needs for our
larger context, healthy systems,
 2. The Purpose of Learning Ecosystems and Emerging Definitions

Develop global
interconnection
to planet

Develop
personal
growth

Develop
community
whithin
place

Figure 11. Interaction between the three levels of personal, place and planetary purposes

participatory and comprehensive as

thinkers, designers and participants to
heal systems which lend themselves to
optimal functioning and potential”

David McConville,
Buckminster Institute

69
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

70
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

3
Conditions for
Ecosystemic
Learning

71
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning
3.1
Enablers
Big Change, a charitable trust supporting
changemaker communities in education,
recently supported the release of Innovation
Unit’s Reimagine Education Together research,
exploring the conditions which do enable
education ecosystems. They recognise, based
on a number of case studies, the vitality of
multiple stakeholders being invested in and
part of the learning process as a primary
starting point, but also that it must include a
broader set of outcomes which share many
different projects that demonstrate ecosys-
temic qualities. These are outlined as its:
transformational purpose, long-term success,
collective responsibility, agency, empow-
ering local action, ongoing learning and
support, governance as facilitators, and a
commitment to ongoing development through
review, adaption and scale. It is a balancing
of individual and collective requirements of
personal and community development projects
within the context of new forms of leadership
and reaching more people in doing so.
We see a lot of these critical components
reflected in our ecosystem leaders insights.
The four main factors which arose through
the interviews can be categorised as CORE for
change. This stands for: Culture, Organisation,
Resources and Execution. The sub-categories
of which can be further broken down within the
table below.
Culture was highlighted as vital for learning
and education ecosystems enabling. Even
with all other elements present, it is culture
that holds the “essence” of ecosystemic
72
projects, as compared to projects organized
in other paradigms.Based on respondents
insights culture in this context reflects values,
beliefs and attitudes, environment, rituals and
rhythms, and relationships. The values shared
by our ecosystem leaders can be woven into a
kind of cultural manifesto of enabling condi-
tions.
The culture of our ecosystem should enable
continuous opportunities for improvement
and change, in a way that is disruptive and
adaptable to support creativity and innovation.
This in turn builds capacity, resilience and
an appetite for growth. Yet, this should be
balanced with iterative learning and additive
change, ensuring sustainable development to
support efficiency and accountability in new
ways so there is still a clear sense of solidarity
alongside flexibility, remixing the old with
the new. The culture should infuse sensitivity
and pleasure, energising and stimulating all
in intellectually challenging, active and social
ways whilst remaining true and alert to place
and context. It is also critical in this process
of development we become more inclusive and
diverse, interdependent and open, which will
require a growing consciousness and mindset
shift, building trust and deep relationships,
“One of the most fundamental aspects
is the discussion about the purpose and
what we’re trying to do. It centres the
discussion to whatever the north star
is. I have my own definition and most
people I imagine is fairly similar but
up to the individuals in the localities to
have those discussions themselves. It
clarifies and empowers everybody who
are actors in that locality to be part of
the process”
Sean Slade,
ASCD
 3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning

Culture
Unifying mission of trust
A vision of change or call to action that is bigger than
any single organisationm but which allows space for
each to make its own.

Representative
alliance
Actively engage with
players of diverse disci-
plines, building on the
energy of the willing and
grappling with the chal- Co-ownership Experimenta- Networked
lenges of sceptics. tion & active growth
Favour action over endorse- Create a disciplined culture Grow through networks
ment, all actors have a of continious learning, aligned by values, supported
purposeful role based on their experimentation that by communities of practice
strengths and assets. comtinues throughout the and scaffolded by shared
journey, not just in the tools and frameworks
design phase.

Servant
leadership
Leadership in service of
change and in service of
others, empowering others
to be leaders in their own
right.

Flexible governance
Long-term stewardship of the vision combined with the
flexibility, patience and permission to experiment and
evolve.

Figure 12. Summarizing the Big Change model in reimagining education215

215
https://www.big-change.org/reimagining-education/

73
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning

Enabler Clarifying questions Elements

Culture What are the cultural factors Values

that support the ecosystemic Stories & Myths
patterns of behavior and organi- Rituals & Rhythms
zation? Relationship & Communication
Norms

Organizational What are the rules, protocols, Local contexts

Principles & organizational structures and
Structures agreements that enable the
development of the ecosystem?
Key stakeholders
Ecosystem governance models
Distributed leadership
Agency/Personalisation
Feedback loops

Resources What are the critical resources Funding

of the project? Space
Tools/Equipment
Technology
Team/People
Skills/Capacity

Execution Which methods and practices Inclusive Planning/Design

help execute the project in Prototyping
ecosystemic way? Collaboration / Co Creation
Action Oriented Research
Engaging Storytelling

Table 5. CORE — key enablers of learning ecosystems as identified by ecosystem leaders

building shared purpose as we become increas-
ingly participatory with all stakeholders in the
community bringing visibility and ownership to
this positive, interwoven transformation.
What are the enabling organisational
principles that support culture building
and beyond in this ecosystemic context?
Ecosystem leaders share that this requires a
shift to enable lifelong learning rather than
fractured learning and to actively build in
processes for greater agency and personali-
sation, as well as distributed leadership within
the local and global context. The qualities and
principles behind and within the organising,
alongside a deliberate approach to commu-
nication is critical. This reflects the power
of the collective, no longer affording leaving
social engagement up to chance. The qualities
of organisation highlight the importance of
hyperlocalism and cultivating a local identity
to understand how all spaces in a region work
together to support learning and development
consciously. This may seem in contrast to their
mission in expanding education to involve
multiple components and an opportunity

74

Community Schools network
The Coalition for Community Schools network216
has organized resources ecosystemically, estab-
lishing the model of a community school which is
both a place and a set of partnerships between
the school and other community resources. Its
integrated focus on academics, health and social
services, youth and community development and
community engagement leads to improved student
learning, stronger families and healthier commu-
nities. Community schools offer a personalized
curriculum that emphasizes real-world learning and
community problem-solving. Schools become centers
of the community and are open to everyone — all
day, every day, including evenings and weekends.
This is a deeply ecosystemic approach to education,
using public schools as hubs. Community schools
bring together many partners to offer a range
of supports and opportunities to children, youth,
families and communities. Partners work to achieve
these results: Children are ready to enter school;
216
http://www.communityschools.org/aboutschools/national_models.aspx
217
http://www.communityschools.org/aboutschools/what_is_a_community_school.aspx
3.
1. Conditions
Introduction:
forThe
Ecosystemic
Future of Learning
students attend school consistently; students are
actively involved in learning and their community;
families are increasingly involved with their chil-
dren’s education; schools are engaged with families
and communities; students succeed academically;
students are healthy — physically, socially, and
emotionally; students live and learn in a safe,
supportive, and stable environment, and communities
are desirable places to live. Most people think of
schools today as serving a single purpose: a binary,
analog-system of delivery — teachers teach and
students learn. Community schools are more akin
to smart phones. Schools and communities connect,
collaborate, and create. Children and families have
an array of support from community partners right
at their school. Communities and schools leverage
their shared physical and human assets to help kids
succeed. Community schools contain a host of oppor-
tunities and supports built-in that give students and
parents all the tools they need to learn and grow.217
75
1. Conditions
3. Introduction:
forThe
Ecosystemic
Future of Learning
Learning
RSA, City & Guilds and Cities of Learning
The RSA218 and City & Guilds219’s Cities of
220
Learning programme is an ecosystemic model
for cities and places to design and deliver lifelong
learning and skills in a way that allows them to be
guided by the needs of their local economies and
people. Cities of Learning connects and amplifies
different forms of formal and informal learning and
training provision that exist across a place, and
creates valuable new progression pathways for
learners into further learning, employment or civic
opportunities via a system of digital open badges.
The model addresses skills gaps, talent pipelines,
and provides a framework for effective place-based
initiatives to facilitate economic growth as well
as strengthen civic pride and identity. The Cities
of Learning model is orientated around three key
design principles: new local civic leadership with a
collective vision for learning and skills; mobilising
diverse networks of learning and skills providers, and
connecting different learning opportunities via open
badges and a digital online platform. The platform
is underpinned by the concept of a ‘learning spine’
which provides a scaffold for structuring place based
learning across different providers, and forms the
foundation for new badge-based learning path-
ways. It also provides a new, common language for
218
https://www.thersa.org/
219
https://www.cityandguilds.com/
220
https://www.thersa.org/cities-of-learning
76
learning and skills progression. Data-driven tools
in the platform capture and provide insights on
the development of learners’ knowledge, skills and
capabilities, and the impact of learning and progres-
sion, allowing city leaders, employers and education
providers to better address local social, civic and
economic needs and promote lifelong learning.
Open badges can be issued by a range of stake-
holders across a locality, and enable the recognition
of learning and skills to respond to local priorities
and labour market needs. In 2017 the RSA and City
& Guilds collaborated with Greater Manchester,
Brighton and Plymouth to test and prototype the
Cities of Learning approach. Support from Further
Education Trust for Leadership, Ufi Charitable Trust
and City & Guilds has allowed the RSA to continue
its work with Plymouth and Brighton to roll out pilots
and evaluate the approach over 2019/20. These
first pilots will be targeted at 14 to 25 years olds.
Plymouth is building pathways around its strong and
entrepreneurial civic, social enterprise, and STEM
sectors. In Brighton, Our Future City, which combines
culture, arts, enterprise, education, community and
public leadership, is a leader in pathways design
across the learning network.

to learn at different paces but in this new
paradigm the city or locality becomes a living
lab of change. All of this progression is and
should sit within the development of current
systemic structures, evolving and practicing
ecosystemic and complex systems regener-
ative design and thinking, such as the work of
“Establishing an effective culture
and set of working practices is
really important — one of high trust,
openness, co-leadership and ownership,
where experimentation is valued,
and successes are jointly shared.
Cultivating that sense of common
mission and purpose which drives the
work forwards, especially given the
sustained level of energy required over
often a long period of time. Developing
ecosystems is labour intensive, and
poor culture can stymie, frustrate and
drain energy and motivation.”
Rosie Clayton,
Cities of Learning, RSA
“We make sure we find an exciting way
to convene! When we share we make
it fun and exciting and different. We
find new ways for those to key actors
to connect from a different level, as
well as to understand and have an
opportunity for personal transformation
and learn from a different place from
the inside out”
Catalina Cockduque,
Mi Sangre
221
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Steps_to_an_Ecology_of_Mind.html?id=HewJbnQmn1gC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_
button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
222
https://www.bfi.org/
223
https://www.danielchristianwahl.com/
224
https://evolution-institute.org/profile/joseph-brewer/
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning
Gregory Bateson221, Buckminster Fuller222 and
their modern followers such as Daniel Wahl223,
and Joe Brewer224.
On the practical level of resources, it requires
funding, people with skills and capacity at
the individual and collective levels, space to
do it, and the right technology, with tools and
equipment being key. Ecosystem leaders in
particular strongly highlighted the importance of
flexible funding, moving towards a more collab-
orative, non-competitive mode which moves
towards new metrics and long-term visioning.
While the committed, long-term, and flexible
funding can be a dream for many, in reality it
is very uncommon. Many ecosystem projects
have to instead rely upon a mixed stream of
funding that comes from multiple sources and
addresses multiple goals of many stakeholders.
Even though it becomes an additional challenge
for the leadership team to align the interests of
these various funders, it also becomes a way of
integrating the plurality of forces into a co-cre-
ating community within an ecosystem.
From the funder perspective (as well as from
the standpoint of other critical stakeholders)
it is important that the ecosystemic project
defines, measures, analyzes, and works on
improving its “metrics of success”. However, it
is important that these metrics are represen-
tative of the multifaceted multi-stakeholder
nature of the ecosystem — and also take
into consideration the immediate benefits as
well as longer term impact on the ecosystem.
There is a tendency of short term or narrowly
defined metrics to distort and even destroy
the ecosystemic nature of otherwise compre-
hensive projects — and this is a risk to be
taken into consideration. Both the success
measurement and the ecosystem “business
models” require further deep exploration
beyond the scope of this research.
77
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning

There is also an evolved sense of roles/people
involved such as facilitators or weavers who
will be explored more deeply in a later section
of relationships and ecosystem leaders. This
is something which extends beyond the realm
of what we have previously perceived as
‘education’ as we recognize that learning is
“Within the new roles we need an
entrepreneurial mindset but with
open, fresh, new ways of creating
partnerships that are interdependent”
Valerie Hannon,
Innovation Unit

something which happens everywhere, for all

of us. This shift shows that we need to find
ways to collaborate in multilayered and multi-
faceted way highlighted in the definition. This
shift in mindset contributes to the evolution of
how, what, and where we learn. Not only are our
approaches to learning evolving but so to are
our tools and learning technologies evolving
such as Kumu225 for ecosystem mapping or
Play Verto226 for easy, playful feedback surveys.
With so much at stake, balancing the multi-
layerness of ecosystem enablers it’s critical
that we also pay attention to the way this is
executed, exploring the role of reflection and
feedback, particularly collective embodiment
of these practices and storytelling. We must
continue to find ways and share how we can:
1. Embody the CORE at the personal
level
2. Co-create and shape the CORE at the
place-based level
3. Align the CORE to our wider
planetary needs
“We actually believe that a thriving
ecosystem is an ecosystem that
really supports children’s learning and
development. We do look to see change
in cultural spaces, ones that are better
able to develop programs, spaces and
pedagogical materials that support and
take into account children, for example
when planning transport and design,
how can all these spaces really work
together to really support learning and
development consciously? It’s really
that shift of becoming conscious of
our impact. So many of us think “I’m
not in education so I’m not part of
an educational system” but when you
say “We’re a learning ecosystem and
research shows that we are constantly
learning, from 0-5 and 0-3.” We know
our environment and experiences have
the number 1 impact on our brains. So
how do we as society break these down
and ensure everyone is accountable?”
Karima Grant,
Founder of ImagiNation Africa

225
https://kumu.io/
226
https://www.playverto.com/

78

METTA-LEARNING
METTA-LEARNING227 is an Argentinian learning
ecosystem project founded by Vivir Agradecidos as a
think, link and do tank with a vision to create a more
stable and peaceful learning environment in which
students and teachers unfold their full potential
for the good of all. The mission is to foster trust in
life, human dignity, grateful living and wellbeing in
community in the education sector. The think aspect
focuses on generating scientific research to evolve
and develop the vision. They work transdisciplinarily
particularly across psychology and neuroscience,
since April 2019 they have worked closely with the
Secretary of Educational Evaluation in Argentina
on the reform of the National Evaluation Report.
They have particularly focused on the topic of
School Climate as an entry point for the inclusion of
wellbeing and human dignity in education initiatives
throughout the country.
The link aspect of their work focuses on commu-
nity building to network with other new paradigm
learning communities. The goal is to create synergy
among them which they do through mapping initia-
tives, modeling synergy and using connecting tech-
nology such as Kumu and Facebook. They have devel-
oped connective intelligence by presenting the entire
ecosystemic project on their website, collecting and
sharing information and characteristics of projects,
as well as setting up technological platforms for
interaction, all at the local, regional and global levels.
This enables connection first at the face to face
level, among culturally similar initiatives, and then
among and between culturally different ones. Then at
the third level, they are focusing on developing well-
being projects that awaken interest in and provide
support for education initiatives that incorporate
227
https://ecosistema.metta-aprendizaje.com/
228
https://youtu.be/JhamwroldAE
3.
1. Conditions
Introduction:
forThe
Ecosystemic
Future of Learning
practices of wellbeing. They do this across the three
levels to allow for interdependence and co-arising
opportunities across the ecosystem at the grass-
root, top down and accompanying processes. This
ensures awakening in each community the interest
and capacity to construct their own educational
plan to reach their highest human potential, helping
current top down organizations to support initiatives
from the ecosystems that empower communities to
accomplish their new educational goals. In addition
they ensure there are external resources, such as
professional/counseling, to support the community in
accomplishing their new education objectives.
At the time of the writing of this report, the project
successfully consolidated a community of 13 pioneer
Evolutionary Learning Communities (ELCs: five
private schools, one public school, three education
service providers, three education non-profit foun-
dations, and one governmental education innovation
network).228 Together, these comprise the pilot
Evolutionary Learning Ecosystem (ELE) as a proto-
type and initial impulse to seed the emergence of
an autopoietic ELE that grows organically. These
ELCs have begun to explore common potentials by
sharing resources, values, educational objectives,
and an emergent holistic worldview that interweaves
their shared understanding of what it means to be
human in today’s fast-changing world. By using the
two main technological platforms for mapping their
relationships and fostering synergies among them,
respectively, the ELCs have begun to take agency in
the co-creation of actionable ideas that will benefit
the entire ELE while simultaneously benefiting the
various ELCs, themselves. The result of this process
is an emergent interbeing: the collective “edunaut” of
thrivable education.
79
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning

3.2
How to evidence learning so that multiple
stakeholders can interpret the results
How to design, develop and quality assure
professional and other roles

Hindrances
If ecosystem organisation is emerging as our
potential new future then we must ask ourselves
why isn’t everyone doing it already? What
hinders the positive intent of these and many
other leaders in developing and becoming part
of thriving learning ecosystems? As shared in
the latest IU and GELP reports some key issues
they found faced by pioneers of the learning
ecosystem have previously been identified
as struggling to know ‘how to’ organize the
following:
How to balance consistency and scale with
diversity and localism
How to ensure sustainable funding while
diversifying governance
How to augment the role of jurisdiction in
creating the space, incentivising, enabling
and creating appropriate regulatory229
In our research we found that there are
two major areas of hinderance: relational
and structural with further sub-categories
identified within these two groups.
Relational relates particularly to the personal
skills, abilities and mindsets required to do this
work at the level of self, but of course deeply
connects to local and global communities.
Structural relates to the organisational norms
and practices which hold progress back at the
local and global levels:

Hinderance Subcategory Elements

type

Relational Inability to estab- Lack of ability to reach consensus

lish collaborative Poor connections
relations Mistrust
Lack of collaboration
Authoritarianism

Current circum- Lack of openness

stance/personal Narrow mindedness
capacity Lack of imagination/reimagination
Lack of courage
Lack of consciousness
Lack of awareness
Clashing personalities
Egos
Authoritarianism
Lack of resilience
Low wellbeing
No joy

80

Structural Strategic/decision
making deficiencies
Organizational
management defi-
ciencies
Resource deficiencies
Structural support for
collaboration deficien-
cies
Table 6. Key hindrances of learning ecosystems as identified by ecosystem leaders
“We need to understand how to move
towards having really vibrant and well
expressed syntony, alignment, how are
we using this sense and how it lives in
your body and being able to know when
we are tuned. We can think of it like a
bicycle with spokes where you have to
turn the spokes to get rid of wobble,
the idea of spinning together. Asking
the question of are we well aligned with
ourselves and are we together on that.
229
March 2019 GELP Israel Convening Report: Anticipating the Future - Leading Education Transformation and https://www.wise-qatar.org/
app/uploads/2019/05/wise_report-rr.1.2019-web.pdf
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning
Not enough explicit vision building
Lack of spokesperson for vulnerable
Lack of neutral parties
Lack of diversity
Poor processes for agency & decision making
Lack of informed & available evidence
Poor management & governance structures
Poor role clarifications
Slow pace of change
Misaligned assessment
Unknown how to provide consistency at scale
Outdated prizes/challenges
Low/ misaligned incentives and motivations
Lack of time, space & energy
Inflexible and lack of funding
Lack of sustainability and regeneration
Necessity of ‘high profile’ stakeholders
Poor collaboration processes & connection of
services/stakeholders
Too much competition/punishment
Poor trust building exercises & activities
Where is the synergy to connect? How do
we create syntony so what I do augments
what I’m doing and others without a
whole lot of energy it requires to work the
way we are at the moment so we are not
drained?”
Alexander Laszlo,
Director of Development at the
Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm
Research
81
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning
Contributors to this research noted that at the
relational level there is a lack of time, space
and learning that allows for necessary skills,
values, and mindsets to develop. A lack of trust
was the most commonly identified hindrance
to creating ecosystems. At the organisa-
tional level it was noted that current societal
norms do not support sustainable or regen-
erative development at the ecosystem level.
The difficulties in relational elements imply
that ecosystem leaders and collaborators
(being the highly diverse set of stakeholders
required) need greater support in developing
their personal skills and abilities. Vishal Talreja,
highlights, for example that “There is a lack of
recognition that we don’t know how to collab-
orate. We are sitting on an assumption that
we know how to do it, we do not invest enough
time into the process of trust building”. Further
backed up by Stephen Harris who believes the
two main hindrances lie very much within this
relational element that “One, teachers have
never been taught emotional intelligence.
Universities teach people to become control
agents within a group of people, to be super-
vised and checked which is antithetical to a
positive relationship. They need to learn how
to have positive functional relationships and
these need to be in place before you move
forward. Secondly, teachers have never been
taught to collaborate. They think they can but
in fact they cannot, which is not their fault
but they have not been trained. Those who
teach MBAs do so in collaborative teams but
we do the opposite in teaching. How can they
become agents of change and collaborate
when they can’t do it themselves?” It seems
that we need to reimagine and recreate
personal development opportunities for
educators and educational stakeholders alike
so we can support those leading education
systems or initiatives to foster change for the
benefit of others and the planet. Another key
230
http://www.edchange.net/publications/Burnout-education.pdf
231
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED194464
232
https://www.fbofill.cat/educacio360
82
difficulty ecosystem leaders who contributed
to this research highlighted was the perceived
need to have ‘high’ profile stakeholders as
partners or promoters of their work, and that
needing to gain this mostly performative
recognition “distracts from the work on the
ground”. Furthermore, another major area of
hinderance noted by contributors is a systemic
level of burnout for educators and change
agents, which is particularly common in the
fields of social justice230 and education work231.
Creating new spaces of neutrality for stake-
holders to come together for shared learning
may provide opportunities for stakeholders
to develop the needed capacities to address
the hindrances to ecosystemic learning. Cities
of Learning at the RSA and Educatió 360 at
Fundació Jaume Bofill232 for example have
noted that when neutral spaces are created,
this allows for people from all perspectives
and areas across learning and education to
release any previous power structures or
hierarchy that may inhibit them from collabo-
rating as effectively as possible. Educatió 360
do this by scaffolding the coalition, bringing
“There is a lot of stress on the financial
pressure to achieve outcomes we know
less about and are just starting to delve
into. We expect outcomes for young
people to improve quite quickly but
financial resources help make it happen
and when we don’t see the changes
quickly we give up on things. Not
having the type of long-term approach
to developing an ecosystem is really
challenging, you’re without the capacity
to deliver”
Gina Cicerone,
Fair Education Alliance

Citymart
Citymart’s platform and business is the distillation
of the fifteen-year journey of Citymart Founder
and CEO Sascha Haselmayer and his team. Sascha
applied design thinking from his architectural
training to reach a simple insight: every procurement
is an opportunity.
Today, over 130 cities have adopted Citymart’s
tools and methods, now provided through Citymart’s
digital platform. Citymart’s work has been globally
recognized by Ashoka, Bloomberg Philanthropies,
the Knight Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation,
the U.N. Global Compact Cities Programme and
Citymart model 234
How Dallas Improved the Coordination and Quality of its Social Care Services
The Opportunity
In 2017, the City of Dallas created a new office of
Community Care to provide social support services to
people in financial need. City Hall wanted input from
city employees and care providers to help guide this
new office and needed a digital platform that could
help them manage this engagement. Dallas chose
Citymart to create an ideation challenge that would
help them bypass traditional processes and engage
community care stakeholders in addressing issues
within the community care system.
The Ideation challenge
Dallas invited 38 organizations to participate in the
challengeand develop strategies for tackling the
fragmented community care system. Citymart enabled
Dallas to manage participants, share relevant informa-
tion, and standartize responses.
For participants, Citymart provided speed and better
quality through in-platform market intelligence and
guidance to craft their submissions. Within a week,
Dallas recieved 63 submissions.
233
https://www.citymart.com/our-history
234
https://www.citymart.com/success-stories-1/how-dallas-improved-the-coordination-and-quality-of-its-communi-
ty-care/2019/10/22
3.
1. Conditions
Introduction:
forThe
Ecosystemic
Future of Learning
many other organizations. So what does this look
like in practice? The City of Dallas needed a new
way of collaborating. With Citymart’s help, the Dallas
discovered new methods of engaging employees and
stakeholders in addressing the urgent needs of its
fragmented social care system. The city started by
crowdsourcing ideas from its employees and local
service providers to better understand the opportuni-
ties and challenges facing its new office of Commu-
nity Care. Through Citymart’s market intelligence,
tools, and expertise, Dallas gained a clearer vision of
what needed to be done.233
Develop Action Areas
Citymart analytics helped facilitators and participants of
a workshop decide on six priority areas for action: Neigh-
borhood Communication, Health & Wellness Inclusion,
Food & Nutrition, Employment & Education, Literacy &
Skills Training, and Better Service Delivery.
Citymart drew on its database of 26,000 solutions for
cities to provide market intelligencem best practice and
financing models to inform policy, strategy, and budget
plans for the new Community Care office.
Unifying mission
1. Citymart helped Dallas get clear mandate for its new
office and generate ideas for improving service delivery
from actual stakeholders
2. Citymart enabled the city to effectively promote the
challenge and streamline the data collection and analysis.
3. 60+ submissions and ideas will serve as valuable
resources for the Community Care office’s planning and
budget proposals.
4. Citymart made it easy to use market intelligence
throughout the process.
83
3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning
together many different leaders across a city
through activities of support such as helping
people to understand local policy opportunities
to empathising deeply with the language of
educators and teachers who work with children
and young people. The ultimate focus is on
finding the best way to connect learning at the
local level, using different tools for different
stakeholders in context relevant ways but
ultimately inviting all to work collaboratively
to advance shared learning.
The enablers and hindrances mentioned
above partnered with increasingly complex
challenges facing humanity as outlined in this
report underscore the embedded patterns
facing educational leaders and learners alike
and the need for an alternative approach
to both learning and leadership in the 21st
century. In order to create the conditions for
ecosystemic learning we must address both
the relational and structural barriers that
our current systems promote. This shift will
require nothing less than the healing of our
broken systems and the rekindling of human
aspiration to include and foster a love and care
for all life. In the words of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola
Estes:
235
https://www.awaken.com/2017/01/dr-clarissa-pinkola-estes-we-were-made-for-these-times/
84
“You are right in your assessments. The
lustre and hubris some have aspired to
while endorsing acts so heinous against
children, elders, everyday people, the
poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is
breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you,
gentle you, to please not spend your
spirit dry by bewailing these difficult
times. Especially do not lose hope.
Most particularly because, the fact is
that we were made for these times.
Yes. For years, we have been learning,
practicing, been in training for and just
waiting to meet on this exact plain of
engagement… Ours is not the task of
fixing the entire world all at once, but
of stretching out to mend the part of
the world that is within our reach. Any
small, calm thing that one soul can do
to help another soul, to assist some
portion of this poor suffering world,
will help immensely. It is not given to
us to know which acts or by whom, will
cause the critical mass to tip toward an
enduring good…” 235
 3. Conditions for Ecosystemic Learning

a. Learning ecosystems are webs of

interconnected relationships organising
lifelong learning.
b. They are diverse, dynamic and evolving,
connecting learners and community to
foster individual and collective capacity.
c. They have three purposes, dedicated to
co-creating thrivable futures for people,
places and our planet

85
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

will do

86
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

4
Ecosystemic
Leadership
& Learning

87
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
4.1
Ecosystem
Thrivalists
This research has been dedicated to exploring
the process of co-creating learning ecosystems
and understanding the work, inspirations,
and competencies required to develop them.
Around the world there is a wide spectrum of
emerging approaches to leadership that share
common ground as it relates to affecting local
and global positive change. Table 7 below
highlights some of the core elements of
evolving approaches to leadership and some
of the key individuals/communities who are
shaping this shift.
Leadership What is it?
Type
Liminal236 Mutually alert care and attention to
the wellbeing of all people and ecolog-
ical systems. Emphasis on relational
characteristics, which cannot be bound
to an individual, organization, nations,
religions, or institutions rather the
liminal between actors.
Hosting is a participatory and process
Hosting237 oriented way of engaging in meaningful
conversations that lead to impactful
work that matters.
A servant-leader focuses primarily on
Servant238 the growth and well-being of people
and the communities to which they
belong, shares power, puts the needs
of others first and helps people develop
and perform as highly as possible.
88
While the above table is not exhaustive of the
kinds of leadership styles emerging around
the world, it does point to an evolution in how
we lead together, the role of leadership, and
new ways of organizing to support collabo-
rative forms of leadership. Furthermore, these
“bright spots” of emerging leadership point to
diverse approaches in how we learn together
through co-creating change, innovation, or
addressing challenges together. Weather
it’s through dialogue, prototyping, or princi-
ples-based approaches people around the
world are experimenting with diverse ways
of leading together that foster new ways of
learning both individually and collectively.
The above mentioned shift from industrial/
assembly-line learning to ecosystemic learning
requires a seismic shift in both learning and
leadership. In order to transition toward
learning that fosters multi-stakeholder and
collective mutual benefit we need to evolve
Principal Authors
Nora Bateson
Stephen Tierney
Art of Hosting Global Community,
Toke Møller, Margaret Wheatly,
Mark McKergow
Robert K. Greenleaf, Ken Blanchard,
Stephen Covey, M. Scott Peck, Ann
McGee-Cooper & Duane Trammell,
Larry Spears, and Kent Keith.
Frederic Laloux, Samantha Slade,
Sociocracy 3.0
 4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning

Horizontal, Networked, collaborative, and shared Frederic Laloux, Samantha Slade,

Teal, Agile 239
leadership approaches to organizing Sociocracy 3.0
and co-creating projects, organizations,
and initiatives that support continuous
evolution, learning, and the prototyping
of solutions, products, or services

Systems Understanding and addressing complex Peter Senge, The Academy For
and adaptive opportunities and challenges Systems Change, Bela Banathy,
Systemic 240
within systems, influencing leverage Alexander Laszlo

points toward desired outcomes, and

working toward the long term evolu-
tionary viability of systems.

Dee Hock
Chaordic241 Chaordic Leadership is both a manage-
ment style, and a system of organiza-
tion characterized by the harmonious
blending of both order and chaos princi-
ples where neither is dominant (e.g.
competition and cooperation).

Transforma- Where a leader works with teams to James V. Downton

tional identify needed change, creating a James MacGregor Burns
vision to guide the change through
inspiration, and executing the change
in tandem with committed members of
a group.

Regenerative242 Working together to co-create a world Giles Hutchins & Laura Storm243
where purpose, people, planet and John Hardman244
Daniel Christian Wahl245
profit collectively thrive. A world built on
regenerative principles, interconnec-
tion, and co-design

Table 7. Various paradigms indicating the emerging model of leadershi

236
https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/liminal-leadership/
237
https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Documents/Leadership-and-management/well-led/Day-2-17/Leader-as-Host-article.pdf
238
https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/
239
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leadership/horizontal.html
240
https://www.virtualstaffcollege.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/strategic_interviews_complete.pdf
241
https://www.meadowlark.co/the_art_of_chaordic_leadership_hock.pdf
242
https://www.regenerators.co/
243
https://www.regenerativeleadership.co/
244
http://integralleadershipreview.com/archive-ilr/archives-2010/2010-10/1010Hardman.pdf
245
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NDJS87V/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

89
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
the ways in which we learn and lead together.
Literature in the business field, for example,
explores the need for “ecosystem CEOs” who
engage in continuous learning to address
multiple, connected and complex dynamics
which requires new practices and relationships,
through which the focus of leadership moves
from the individual and individual success to the
collective and collaborative mutual benefit.246
From this perspective, ecosystem leaders are
characterized by “agility, a fail-fast mentality,
and unassailable trust. They are created for a
number of reasons, such as testing new ideas,
innovating around products, delivering across
new channels, and finding alternative ways to
collaborate — all in order to develop a win-win
situation for the partners, one that will allow
them to meet — and stay ahead of — the
demands of their stakeholders.” 247
Based upon the evolving nature of leadership
as described above, and the dire need for
leadership practices to evolve as indicated by
global socioeconomic and political dynamics,
ecosystem leadership is emerging as a potential
pathway to unlearn, reimagine, and relearn
how to both learn and lead together as we
co-create life affirming futures together that
work for all peoples and our biosphere home.
The following table exacerbates the contrasts
and differences between “industrial leadership”
and “ecosystem leadership” in order to highlight
how these differing approaches to leadership
might impact how we learn together.
The above contrasts can be helpful beyond the
pejorative tone toward industrial leadership
when we take into account that in general
most leaders, wherever they are placed in
our institutions, organizations, or systems are
more often than not seeking to make a positive
difference in the world for their communities
and families. It is our human systems rather,
246
https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/Insights/thought-leadership/Documents/Beyond%20the%20Corner%20Office%20_Leadership%20
in%20a%20Multi-Company%20Ecosystem.pdf
247
https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/Insights/thought-leadership/Documents/Beyond%20the%20Corner%20Office%20_Leadership%20
in%20a%20Multi-Company%20Ecosystem.pdf
90
by and large that foster continued de-human-
izing, future-limiting, and win/lose dynamics
that harm all life and reward the continu-
ation of these dynamics. In the face of these
persistent and paradoxical dynamics we
need leadership approaches that model the
intelligence of nature, that foster cultures of
collaborative learning, and are guided by life
affirming visions of the future.
Many of the contributors to the research in
this report point to the vanguard learning
and leadership development approaches of
The Presencing Institute as exemplary of the
kinds of individual and collective capacity
building that is needed to evolve the ways
we address the challenges and opportunities
we face in the world today. The Presencing
Institute248 has, for example, developed a
leadership program which “aims to activate
the co-shapers of a new global movement
(and action research university) one that
integrates science, technology, consciousness,
and profound societal change to bridge the
major ecological, social, and spiritual divides
of our time.” 249 Building upon its core change
theory, Theory U250 the Presencing Institute
fosters spaces for learners to “lead from the
emerging future” and illuminates alternative
pathways that we can take along the journey
of evolving how we learn together.
“What I try to do is make the networks
work together and to have and propose
tools for the shift of consciousness.”
Noemi Paymal,
Pedagooogia 3000
 1.
4. Introduction:
Ecosystemic The
Leadership
Future of
& Learning

Еcosystem leadership is emerging as a

potential pathway to unlearn, reimagine,
and relearn how to both learn and lead
together as we co-create life affirming
futures together that work for all

91
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
Industrial Leadership
Hierarchical, top down power structure and flow.
Focus on people being human resources and
people rely on linear structure and analytical
logic. Communication is typically focused toward
downloading and transmitting data and informa-
tion.
Command and control with an authoritative
approach to relationships. Fear, manipulation and
demanding compliance. Encourage separation,
segregation, & self-centeredness.
Closed and guarded information policy. Fear of
failure leading to short sighted and short term
planning.
Representation of workplace or community is
often homogeneous.
Competitive: win — lose
Table 8. Contrasting industrial and ecosystemic leadership models
Moving toward synthesis, based upon the
perspectives and experience of those contrib-
uting to this research and our own prototyping
in the field we have identified a variety of
roles and competencies ecosystem leaders
play when cultivating learning ecosystems
as well as the roles played by diverse actors
within learning ecosystems. Based upon these
findings, there are five major categories
presented below within a spectrum of what
we call gardening and weaving in evolving
learning ecosystems.
248
https://www.presencing.org
249
https://www.presencing.org/programs/marketplace/presencing-advanced-program-ecosystem-leadership
250
https://www.presencing.org/aboutus/theory-u
92
Ecosystem Leadership
Networks and communities working and learning
together. People are valued at the individual and
collective level, as interdependent contributors.
Communication is typically active and deep
listening, enabling vulnerability with questions
and storytelling.
In service to life, shared agency and transparent
authenticity relationships. Collaborative, co-facil-
itative, enabling, wisdom and humor. Culture of
integration, empathy, & compassion.
Sharing information and data to improve the
quality of creativity and learning. Fostering
experimentation with a long-term view priori-
tised.
Representation of workplace or community is
diverse.
Collaborative: win-win
From this perspective the changemaker is at
the heart of the process of evolving learning
ecosystems. Based upon the experience of
the ecosystem leaders interviewed for this
research the central aspiration of change-
makers in this context is purpose-driven, to
“be the change they want to see in the world”
for their communities and the world. Change-
makers in learning ecosystems seem to act
as multifaceted instigators of a variety of
competencies: sensemaker, connector, story-
teller, and designer. Some focus predominantly
on the sensemaking aspect as their contri-
 4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning

Mapper Researcher
Explorer Thought leader

Sensemaker
Creating new ideas Gardener

Disruptor
Illuminator Shapeshifter
Cheerleader Paradigm shifter
Promoter Value adder
Campaigner Prototyper
Advocate Teacher
Influencer Capacity builder
Spreader

Storyteller Changemaker Designer

Communicating and Being the change Designing
engaging systems

Facilitator Ecosystem designer

Convenor Process designer
Space holder Learning designer
Trust builder Reframer
Access builder Strategizer
Curator

Connector
Enabling relations
Weaver

Relationship builder Steward

Networker Quiet leader
Intermediary

Figure 14. Learning Ecosystem Roles/Competencies as identified by leaders

93
1. Ecosystemic
4. Introduction: Leadership
The Future &
of Learning
Learning
GELP
GELP (Global Education Leaders Partnership)251 is
a powerful alliance of global education leaders who
are seriously committed to transforming the practice
of education and to develop the personal skills they
need to lead that transformation. The partnership
operates as a “network of networks” for people in
the education sphere, as well as those involved in
business, politics, the entrepreneurial world, and civil
society. More than just a space for discussion, GELP
created and utilized numerous useful tools for educa-
251
https://www.gelponline.org/
Emerge
Emerge254 are an independent, non-profit media
platform sowing the seeds of a new civilisation, they
share a mix of articles, podcasts, videos, as well as
showcasing alternative learning spaces and events in
an accessible way. Emerge’s principles are:
We hope to sow the seeds for a new civilisa-
tion — we are farmers or gardeners.
We are observing and helping to give birth to a new
civilisation — we are midwives.
We want a more-conscious society — we are alarm
clocks or zen teachers.
We seek to co-create a more conscious society — we
are collaborative innovators.
254
http://www.whatisemerging.com/
94
tors, including a “Roadmap to Education Transfor-
mation,” which guides system leaders in the evolu-
tion of their educational transformations to create
actionable plans. Other tools include the Elements
for System Transformation map, which helps leaders
visualize the steps and planning needed to advance
towards transformation, and Redesigning Education:
Shaping Learning Systems Around the Globe, which
highlights GELP’s global members as they journey
towards the education systems they need and want.
We are interested in three kinds of transformation;
the self, society and emergent systemic properties
of these two together — we are alchemists, or
societal chefs.
We recognise that how we perceive and know
and represent the world has revolutionary poten-
tial — we are artists.
We seek complex integration of diverse bodies of
theory and practice — we are epistemic freedom
fighters.
We want to support innovative forms of spiritual
practice and inquiry that better connect us to the
challenges of our time — we are conveners and
hosts.
We love powerful and beautiful communica-
tion — we are drum rolls and content curators.”

bution to the ecosystem, which might be in
the form of generating new ideas. This could
also look like a social entrepreneur who has
a great shapeshifting ability as they are often
on the ‘frontline’ developing relationships and
figuring out the best way to add value to the
entire ecosystem. We can contrast this with
the storyteller which may come in the form
of activism, research or communication roles,
where the emphasis is on connecting and
promoting the new paradigm (which of course
overlaps, like all, with the sensemaker, change-
maker, designer and connector).
It has been noted that ecosystem storytellers
have a particularly unique role in the devel-
opment of learning ecosystems. As mentioned
above in section 2.3, the stories and myths
we tell ourselves play a huge role in how
we perceive and act. Mythologist Joseph
Campbell, in The Power of Myth, defined the
function of mythology as “the provision of
a cultural framework for a society or people
to educate their young, and to provide them
with a means of coping with their passage
through the different stages of life from birth
to death.”252 A myth then is woven into the
very fabric of a culture, our relationship to our
environment, and how we learn. The narratives
we perpetuate and create shape the character
of our shared understanding of life and our
roles within our communities. Storytellers in
learning ecosystems play the role of caring
for and shaping the narratives, the stories, the
emerging myths of our learning and leadership,
illuminating the possible and affirming the
desired future potentials. Activate the Future253
by Jen Andersson, is an example of retelling
narratives by sharing insights from research
and projects that are focused on themes such
as systems thinking, creativity and innovation
and regenerative leadership.
252
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Myth-Joseph-Campbell/dp/0385247745
253
https://medium.com/activate-the-future
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
The above mentioned competency areas
are bound by the two overarching elements,
“gardening” and “weaving”, which focuses on
the cultivation of learning ecosystems and
the relationships between ecosystem actors
(see further explanation below). As depicted,
developing ecosystems requires a multitude
of abilities and skill sets and the ability to
flexibly support individuals to “wear many
hats” and/or foster collaboration between
diverse role relationships. Oftentimes
ecosystem leaders work concurrently on
many different projects across the ecosystem
and the roles and competencies they develop
evolve with the focus of their work. The role
of leadership in learning ecosystems seem to
be an evolving process of both responding to
needs, shaping a shared future vision, and
cultivating the space for the collaborative
relationships required for multi-stakeholder
learning and mutual benefit.
Through this research it has been noted that
actors within the emerging practice of ecosys-
temic learning have found it challenging to
name the role or roles they play. Throughout
this report we have referenced research
contributors as “ecosystem leaders”. Other
names for this work that were either
considered for this report or are seen in the
field include ecosystem animator, ecosystem
catalyst, or ecosystem stewardship. Part of
the challenge it would seem in naming and
narrating this emerging practice is that rather
than reframing or repurposing existing terms
there is something emerging that wants to
be articulated as suggested by the inter-
secting elements of learning ecosystems.
Ecosystems are not shaped from the outside
but rather from within, ecosystems are not
“led” by one actor, they are symbiotic and
collaborative, and through the practice of
co-creating learning ecosystems we seek to
95
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
cultivate shared learning and leadership. With
these perspectives centered and based upon
this research thus far we would like to propose
that the shared work of co-creating learning
ecosystems is best encompassed through new
language, we suggest the term Ecosystem
Thrivalist.
Ecosystem Thrivalists we believe are the life
affirming leaders who serve and support the
capacity building of learners and leaders within
96
learning ecosystems. The work of ecosystem
thrivalists is to foster learning and impact
that goes beyond survival or subsistence
toward thriving for all. Ecosystem Thrivalists
are the weavers and gardeners of learning
ecosystems, working toward fostering the
symbiotic mutually beneficial relationships and
competencies that enable learning ecosystems
to thrive.

4.2
Weaving a Web
of Relationships
In the longest longitudinal study on happiness
it was found that close relationships, more
than money, fame or any other factor, are what
keep people happy throughout their lives.255 Not
only are they important for overall well being,
but we can learn ‘better’ and ‘more’ when we
are happy too.256 Studies have also shown
that at the traditional teacher-student level,
for example, the strength of the relationship
equates to the positive success of the child
on both an emotional and traditional test
scores.257 So it seems that the role of relation-
ships is central not only to our happiness
but also to what it means to be a learning
ecosystem, its purpose and how we enable
these conditions. How we relate to ourselves
and others allows us to not only co-create and
collaborate effectively, but also to cultivate
the vital connections required in our lives. On
a deeper level than that, we understand that
a multitude of aspects, which can be culti-
vated, feed into our ability to connect with
others and build meaningful relationships. You
might wonder are meaningful relationships so
important to working together? Is this really
important? Shouldn’t we be focusing on making
this happen? Yet we see in both research and
our interviews just how central this ability is on
a fundamental level so we can work together,
as well as a deeper profound level related to
our health and wellbeing. We can examine the
quality of the relationship itself desired, as
well as how we might create this in practice.
255
https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org/
256
https://natberryblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/are-happy-students-successful-students/
257
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-011-9170-y
258
https://www.ted.com/talks/frances_frei_how_to_build_and_rebuild_trust/discussion#t-214088
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
Across conversations with learning ecosystem
leaders we found that overwhelmingly the
most mentioned response to what types of
relationships or collaborations help education
ecosystems flourish is trust. The role of trust
is a critical aspect when building new relation-
ships. Research shows that when authenticity
and empathy are present, trust increases.258
The qualities described as key to building
trusting relationships are given insight in the
table below. Francis Frei, trust expert, shares
that the most common difficulty in building
trust is that we do not believe we are ‘in it’
with and for the other person, we are missing
a deep sense of empathic connection. This
should come as no surprise in our VUCA world
when carving out time, space, energy and
attention is increasingly difficult. Questions
surrounding authentic and human partnership
and relationship can arise, particularly if
we think to the context of leaders within an
ecosystem who often have many people vying
for their attention where different power
dynamics can also be at play.
“Sometimes we put interests/mission
together and expect that they will
collaborate naturally but you can forget
that if you don’t trust you can’t challenge
one another. We need to put the human
at the centre of the relationships to
have deeper conversations”
Zineb Mouhyi,
WISE
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4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning

Qualities Elements

Deep Authentic Adaptable

Connection
Trustworthy Transparent Fun/Joyful
Collaborative Syntherny Open
Meaningful Empathic/Compas-
Emotional sionate
Respectful Playful

Personality Reliable Playful Committed

Friend Stillness Communicative
Confident Soft Ego Generous
Passionate Growth Mindset Positive
Empathic/Compas- Adaptable Supportive
sionate Fun/Joyful Humble
Empowered Learner

Communication Rich dialogue Reflective

Deep listening Non-violent
Constructive Open

Table 9. Aspects of relationship-building within ecosystemic projects as shared by leaders

There are many recommended ways of
overcoming these difficulties of building
trusting relationships within ecosystemic
projects. For example, Brene Brown highlights
the critical component of vulnerability and how
this is a key to building trust with others259.
Her research and now widely streamed talk
on Netflix ‘Call to Courage’ shares with us
simple tools and techniques we can use to be
vulnerable in effective ways, especially in times
of misunderstanding or conflict. For example,
the compelling verbal technique of ‘the story
I’m telling myself is’ allows us to see that all
situations are ultimately just a narrative and a
projection of what we ourselves perceive. It is
in building this understanding of ourselves, and
then others, that we can begin and continue to
connect.
Ecosystem leaders need to build rich, diverse
relationships to support their development.
This is an emerging field of work and insights
are growing on how to best learn how to both
transform ourselves for personal development,
as well as transform the connection with others
and the group for collaboration. Though it is yet
to be commonly understood or mastered, at this
point in history we have a unique opportunity to
experiment on a global scale with what works
well and in what situations, finding a way to put
into practice theory on a wider scale to share
insights as part of the ecosystem development
reflection and journey. In the future, through
continued experimentation and prototyping
we will explore further language and frame-
works to explain if and when we feel trust and

259
https://brenebrown.com/

98

Change the Script, Autens
At the macro level Vishal Talreja organizes an
event called Change the Script which is designed
around the core principles of creating safe spaces
for engagement, deep listening and validation. It
also intentionally incorporates use of play and art to
engage and facilitate the group journey. One of the
workshops ran for all participants at the conference
is called ‘River of Life’. The idea is that you use the
river as a metaphor for life, beginning with creative
visualization of your life and the key moments that
shaped it through stories, conversations, narratives
etc. Following this visualization you can draw the key
moments in your life (at least 5) based on the river
metaphor, for instance, you can draw a waterfall to
represent a failure or a bridge to represent support
systems, whatever feels right to you. Following this
creation, you find a partner to share and listen to
each other’s stories. In using this process of creative
visualization 1) the river as a metaphor 2) artist visu-
alization 3) sharing and listening a space of safety,
empathy and care is created. Participants are now in
a deeply reflective place which also helps them build
empathy for themselves and their journeys, alongside
1.
4. Introduction:
Ecosystemic The
Leadership
Future of
& Learning
listening to others to build empathy in moments of
strength and vulnerability in understanding their life
journey. It is in this that we begin to trust. Whereas
in comparison at the micro level with teachers in the
school Lene Jensby has created a powerful workshop
tool through Autens for collaboratively designing
and redesigning learning environments based on how
children learn, while transforming the shared peda-
gogical practice through a playful, creative method
that mimics great project-based learning. One
innovative teacher might improve their classroom
layout and culture, but this is unlikely to have a long
term impact on the learning culture of the school,
for lasting impact and meaningful change, the whole
school community needs to play an active role in
changing the culture and design of learning spaces.
The workshops have a dual, inter-related purpose: to
create design solutions for specific learning spaces
and to strengthen a shared learning culture with
a very high sense of ownership and empowerment
among teachers. They have successfully facilitated
this workshop both in Denmark and across the world
with over 2,500 educators and these workshops have
influenced the daily school life of at least 19,000
students.
99
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
why. An increased intentionality around this
could potentially lead to deeper and greater
relationship building processes that facilitate
trust as a precursor to change work.
We can look to the kinds of experiences and
environments that do currently exist in the
ecosystem to enable this to happen that we
can learn from. Ecosystem leader Vishal Talreja
reminds us that “I think at the first level, it’s
a marathon, not a 100 meter race. When you
look at traditional gatherings, you come in
and after 2 days you want more interaction.
We’re not giving enough time and space for
trust building, for collaboration, to create an
experience of what trust looks and feels like
with people who are not known to each other.”
In this work, time and space may sound like a
luxury, but the reality is that we cannot afford to
not create space and time within our learning
journeys for trust building when we understand
how important trust building is to the relation-
ships and connections which are the life energy
of learning ecosystems.
An organisation working at various levels both
building, and then nurturing webs of deep
and purposeful relationships, is The Weaving
Lab260. Their work focuses on advancing the
practice and profession of weaving learning
ecosystems for universal wellbeing. This
leadership practice requires a different set of
skills and ways of being than many classical
leadership styles, and builds upon the idea
and importance of liminal leaders in today’s
world. Weaving is an approach to leadership
that relies less on hierarchical authority and
centralised control, and more on curating
circles, hosting conversations, and building
trusted relationships. It involves taking the
lead but, equally, empowering others to step
forward and take the lead. Weavers talk
about moving from ego to eco. Weaving is a
complex and nuanced discipline that involves
shepherding people from highly diverse insti-
tutions, roles, backgrounds and perspectives
100
“When I started my social enterprise
I concentrated on direct service
interventions. Once I discovered the
concept of collective impact, through
ecosystemic engagements I shifted
strategy and enjoyed the challenge of
weaving alongside others who shared
similar impact goals. Essentially, I am
now able to play a role in a wider pool
of impact leaders dedicated to tackling
the root causes of the issues we used
to design programs for. It’s through the
understanding and engagement of every
actor within a ‘system’ we have been
able to change that system. The journey
continues…”
Michael Sani,
Founder of Play Verto and Bite the
Ballot, Collaborator of The Weaving
Lab
“Everyone shapes the world. Everything
we do has consequences, and every
consequence causes a response.
Our wellbeing is permanently in flux,
unfolding from moment to moment
through every single human action
and reaction. Thus, we need to help
everyone understand their influence on
the world — to discover and use their
agency for making a better world. We
need to empower everyone — from
the most marginalized to the most
privileged — to make a positive
contribution throughout their lives
and leave the world in a better state
than when they entered it. We need to
empower everyone as a changemaker”
The Weaving Lab’s Framework for
Change

into meaningful collaborations that have
systemic impact. The Weaving Lab is made up
of ecosystem leaders from around the world.
A major aspect of weaving for The Weaving
Lab involves both developing communities
and teams of teams whilst, at the same time,
also centering self-development. Weavers
know they are part of the system, not outside
of it, and know that to transform the system,
they must also transform themselves. They
outline the process of growing yourself, and
your teams, and your wider ecosystem, as a
continuous process of:
Aligning: Aligning a community to a shared
purpose, values and incentives; Growing a
diverse community; Nurturing dynamic, trusted
relationships.
Collaborating: Creating the conditions for
collective action; Co-creating teams of teams;
Maintaining direction & momentum of teams
& projects; Fostering innovation and commu-
nication across teams.
Acting systemically: Understanding
systems and systems change; Reading and
sensing your ecosystem; Creating impact
in your ecosystem; Measuring progress &
financing your ecosystem.
260
https://weavinglab.org/
261
https://www.thegcl.org/weaving-academy/
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
Being the new system: Being self-aware,
empathic, present & open; Being purposeful &
proactive; Being reflective, possibility-minded,
thoughtful & wise; Being resourceful, creative
& playful; Being authentic, vulnerable, coura-
geous & resilient
Learning: Being adaptable, growth-minded
& curious; Identify community learning objec-
tives & methods; Facilitating flows of learning
throughout your community; Monitor, evaluate
& apply learnings to evolve community purpose
& practice.261
“One of the most important tools for
ecosystem development in education is
twitter. It really allows people to come
together organically based on what
those interests are, allows for everyone
to participate, it’s open and you can
share and participate and interact so
things really grow. For me it’s a very
useful, trusted network of friends
globally, it’s one of the most powerful
tools I’ve come across.”
Lene Jensby,
Director of Autens and Global
Schools Alliance
101
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
This approach also outlines a shift towards
the network-based education we referenced
earlier on in the report (Section 1.2). The goal
of networks is to break out of silos and expand
collaboration, build connections for systems
change, connect to new people and resources,
produce and spread innovation, as well as
increase reach and influence. These kind of
approaches can work best for complex/wicked
problems, including issues that influence the
current education system, such as structural
racism and income disparity. Organizations like
The Weaving Lab are modelling this by trying
to develop learning ecosystems for universal
wellbeing, currently collaborating with Ashoka,
Roundglass, Network Weaver, Katapult, WISE
262
https://networkweaver.com/
263
https://blog.kumu.io/building-intentional-networks-that-drive-impact-part-1-90a7271c7a2a
102
and Learnlife to mesh, meld and develop
ecosystemically. Much of their work focuses
on field building, as well as facilitating experi-
ences and workshops with a variety of organi-
zations in and outside the traditional field of
education to further weaving as a concept
and practice. Furthermore, luminaries like June
Holley are instrumental in this field; she has
been developing weaving as a network across
all domains through the Network Weavers262
since 2013. Their work draws upon a network
of consultants who develop resources such as
research projects, workshops, tools, communi-
cation, mapping, coaching and more helping
practitioners weave networks263.

4.3
Gardening
Ecosystems
Another way to understand the work required
to cultivate thriving learning ecosystems is
that of ecosystem gardening. Gardening,
beyond the metaphor, is a practice of culti-
vating symbiotic complex living systems, and
the work of cultivating learning ecosystems
requires working with and learning from nature
and its wisdom, evolving our systems and
evolving ourselves. In the words of Masanobu
Fukuoka “The ultimate goal of farming is not
the growing of crops, but the cultivation and
perfection of human beings.” 264 In this context,
learning ecosystems are the “garden or farm”
in which we cultivate healthy conditions for
learning to flourish, both for individuals and
in communities. This includes seeding oppor-
tunities, propagating projects, cultivating
thriving ecosystems, and cultivating our capac-
ities as learners and leaders.
Ecosystem Gardeners create new ways of
learning and being in the world, both for
themselves and their local and/or global
community. This can take many forms such as
tools, processes, events, accelerators or art.
They often create technological platforms to
connect this work bringing visibility to change
in the digital sphere so they can connect with
more people, and evidence their impact to
the community and funders. We see leaders
using this language and talking about their
work through the gardening metaphor. Ismael
Palacín shared for example that “if we create
new rules people can garden their ecosystems,
for example in my garden I will create a
264
https://onestrawrevolution.net/
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
different climate so I can grow different plants.”
The role of ecosystem gardeners is particularly
noticeable outside the Euro-Atlantic world. In
places such as Western Europe or the United
States for example, there is a saturation of
siloed and disconnected institutions and in this
context the main role of an ecosystemic leader
is to connect and align, or to weave together,
various players. However, in many regions of
the world, such as Latin America, Africa, Russia,
or the Middle East, there is more impoverished
institutional landscape, what some call “insti-
tutional voids”264 and ecosystem leaders have
to take a more proactive role in cultivating the
landscape before activities such as weaving
are a priority. One can think of an analogy with
the “rhythms of life”, the cycles of change in
day and night and the change of our seasons.
Evolving projects and initiatives within an
ecosystem, e.g. platforms, competitions,
rankings, and accelerators, when introduced
into a system, start to influence the whole
system. Here, an ecosystem gardener works
with what is possible, guiding the evolution
of an ecosystem towards more desirable
outcomes.
Around the world there are many tradi-
tions and movement’s, including Indnigenous
wisdom traditions, and Traditional Ecological
Knowledge mentioned previously, that are
dedicated to uniting gardening and farming
via the modeling of the wisdom of nature with
the development and evolution of the self, our
collective intelligence, and our relationship
to the ecosystems that are our homes. To
highlight a few of many examples from around
the world:
Permaculture: a global design movement,
provides shared ethics of Care for People,
Care for the Earth, and Care for our Future
as design parameters within which practi-
tioners can design and create mutually
beneficial garden, farm, or social systems.
103
1. Ecosystemic
4. Introduction: Leadership
The Future &
of Learning
Learning

Gardening, beyond the metaphor, is

a practice of cultivating symbiotic
complex living systems, and the work of
cultivating learning ecosystems requires
working with and learning from nature
and its wisdom, evolving our systems
and evolving ourselves. In the words of
Masanobu Fukuoka “The ultimate goal of
farming is not the growing of crops, but
the cultivation and perfection of human
beings.

104

Nature Farming: a farming movement
from Japan, suggests John Phillips the
founder of Gardening For Peace265 seeks
to create agricultural ecosystems that are
in harmony and balance with nature and
that gardening itself is an opportunity for
spiritual awakening.
 Biodynamic Farming: integrates
ecological approaches to developing farm
systems with communities (education,
cultural practices, mysticism, astrology)
 Biomimicry: a design approach that
models and harnesses the intelligence of
nature as a way of addressing the the grand
challenges within human society
Each of the above approaches highlight that
humanity has creative agency in how we relate
to each other, Earth, and the ecosystems
within which we live. Gardening then becomes
a practice of learning with and from nature,
natural cycles, the inherent intelligence of our
Biosphere and co-creating and participating in
the unfoldment of living systems. Gardening
learning ecosystems in part then is a practice
of remembering that we come from Earth and
are a part of the living, evolving processes of
life, that we can intentionally cultivate learning
processes enlivened and modeled after the
intelligence of Life. In the words of Buddhist
monk Thich Nhat Hanh:
“We need to change our way of thinking and
seeing things. We need to realise that the
Earth is not just our environment. The Earth
is not something outside of us. Breathing with
mindfulness and contemplating your body, you
realise that you are the Earth. You realise that
your consciousness is also the consciousness
of the Earth.”
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
Ecosystem Gardeners cultivate ways of
learning and being in the world, both for
themselves and their local communities and
our global community that are inspired by
living systems. This can take many forms such
as tools, processes, events, accelerators or
art. They often create social and technological
infrastructure and platforms to connect this
work bringing visibility to change in the digital
sphere so they can connect with more people,
and evidence and share their impact, successes
and learning’s. We see leaders using this
language and talking about their work through
the gardening metaphor. Ismael Palacín
shared for example that “if we create new
rules people can garden their ecosystems, for
example in my garden I will create a different
climate so I can grow different plants.” The
role of ecosystem gardeners is particularly
noticeable outside the Euro-Atlantic world. In
places such as Western Europe or the United
States for example, there is a saturation of
siloed and disconnected institutions and in this
context the main role of an ecosystemic leader
is to connect and align, or to weave together,
various players. However, in many regions of
“Many of the tools we have developed
and adopted are strongly inspired by the
maker culture and the coding culture,
inspired by the common languages
coders make and share. They have their
project but they collaborate and in
which they have low cost transactions
to collaborate — the recognition is
better, it’s not money or power, it’s
the recognition of you peers and your
prestige in that ecosystem — this really
reflects on the future of culture of
systems.”
Ismael Palacín,
Director of Fundacio Jaume Bofill
105
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
“My opinion is that the main purpose
is to be a kind of organic, leverage of
changemaking in the world. If we’re
speaking about tomorrow and a future
world and our kids and their kids and we
want to change it we should change it
through education. If we want to make
this shift and change sustainable, we
should make it in ecosystem mode,
we might be gone but it’s alive and
developing e.g. gardening and tree
planting which will grow for a long time.
If I plant it now it’s not even for me or
my children, the level of complexity of
ecosystems is similar to the level of
complexity of challenges we have as
human beings and we have complicated
and complex challenges we face and our
solutions and answers to these issues
should be comparable with complexity
so we don’t just find a simple solution
that doesn’t work anymore. It’s a
paradoxical challenge, on the one hand
we have to create this complicated,
complex ecosystem with this kind of
collective mind and thinking inside it,
yet on the other hand we have to be
aware of this thinking system whilst
being part of the system. It’s really a
paradoxical challenge of how to be
aware, to understand our mind/body
complexity and being part of it. Not just
about thinking it’s about perception and
feeling, hard to feel something if you’re
part of thinking.”
Alena Surikova,
co-founder of the Metaversity in
Russia
106
the world, such as Latin America, Africa, Russia,
or the Middle East, there is more impoverished
institutional landscape, what some call “insti-
tutional voids”266 and ecosystem leaders have
to take a more proactive role in cultivating the
landscape before activities such as weaving
are a priority. One can think of an analogy with
the “rhythms of life”, the cycles of change in
day and night and the change of our seasons.
Evolving projects and initiatives within an
ecosystem, e.g. platforms, competitions,
rankings, and accelerators, when introduced
into a system, start to influence the whole
system. Here, an ecosystem gardener works
with what is possible, guiding the evolution
of an ecosystem towards more desirable
outcomes.
Gaby Arenas finds ways to blend the old with the
new in her ecosystem gardening approaches,
sharing “the purpose of an ecosystem is to
create a safe space to foster the skills and
opportunities. If you are having a learning
process only in the school, you are missing
a lot of the learning process which happens
outside, for example in the museum, playing in
the park or supermarket. Yet, when everyone
is aware of this you can create opportunities
to enable this which works for young people
and adults to foster opportunities and develop
skills in a better and more holistic way.” It is the
connection of these elements, with different
purposes that “help people to have local action
concretely to want to do something where you
are but know you’re all connected across the
globe” as Noemi Paymal explains. Very much in
tandem with Gaby’s point, she reminds us that
“if it’s local you forget the rest but if you only
do the global or network level you’ve forgotten
the base and grassroot but we need both. It’s a
formula to have both, to learn and have ideas
and creativity, this is why I love it!” Compared
to weaving or relationship building work, the
process of “gardening” can be much more
intentional and deliberate about the design of
a given learning ecosystem. Gardening within
learning ecosystems, similarly to organic
 4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning

gardens requires “pruning” or “weed out” “This approach to learning and

of life-limiting, or in this case learning-lim- leadership is a prototype of living
iting dynamics. In the context of learning
practices of the emerging future
ecosystems this might mean addressing
through creating learning opportunities
limiting beliefs that foster unhealthy forms
of competition or changing resources flows that cultivate the “seeds of
within learning ecosystem to foster shared tomorrow”...“Ecosystem gardeners”
benefit rather than prioritizing “winner takes plant, cultivate, shape, harvest and
all” mentalities. regenerate educational projects,
learning communities, experiences
As described above, ecosystem gardening is
and trajectories within complex living
multifaceted and ecosystem actors do not
work in isolation, they must mobilize, connect, educational ecosystems.”
and cultivate the many elements and relation-
ships within the ecosystems they work. As
described in the 2018 Global Education
Futures report Educational Ecosystems For
Societal Transformation, this is the work of
ecosystem gardening:

265
http://www.gardeningforpeace.com/
266
https://www.smu.edu.sg/perspectives/2013/02/27/institutional-voids-black-hole-or-opportunities

107
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
4.4
Ecosystem
Acceleration
An important question that some ecosystem
leaders are exploring is whether ecosystem
development can be accelerated, much in the
same fashion as technological startups or
cultural innovations who benefit from accel-
eration programs. Given the scope and the
scale of the necessary changes in education
systems around the world, and the urgency of
global challenges, there may be great value in
further exploring how to accelerate the devel-
opment of learning ecosystems. However, we
should also be mindful that ecosystemic initia-
tives are very different from a typical startup,
due to being a multifaceted, co-created, and
organically emerging endeavour. “Normal”
acceleration methodologies that focus on
improving the product, streamlining processes,
and attracting investments, are falling short
of adequate tools that support complex and
multi-directional dynamics of ecosystems.
However, in the field beyond education, a
number of successful educational programs
already exist that support acceleration of
innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
The Founders Institute, one of the most
successful acceleration programs in Silicon
Valley, has created a worldwide communi-
ty-based process for acceleration of entrepre-
neurial ecosystems267. By focusing on a range
of institutions required to support ideation,
development, and growth of successful
technological startups, they encourage local
267
https://fi.co/canvas_template
268
https://reap.mit.edu/about/
269
https://weaving.changemakers.com/
270
https://www.gelponline.org/
108
ecosystem leaders to catalyze or build up
necessary institutional infrastructure to close
the gaps in the institutional landscape. This is
done by providing seed funding and free office
space to early stage projects, or creating
training programs on coding that help local
populations engage in the IT sector. Similarly,
MIT runs a program called the Regional Entre-
preneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) that
supports teams of entrepreneurial ecosystem
leaders, usually a mixed group of government,
business and social leaders, in developing
ecosystems of their own. These high-profile
groups come from all over the world, ranging
from Iceland and Singapore to Lagos and
Lima, for a two-year process that allows them
to build up a sustainable model of supporting
technological innovation at the local scale
through policies and strategic interventions268.
In education, similar programs have been
accomplished in recent years. The Weaving Lab
program269 as mentioned previously has been
conducted in 2018 to support 25+ ecosystem
leaders in developing their professional and
leadership capacities, as well as providing
support and peer guidance to projects run
by these leaders. Earlier, in 2010-15, Global
Education Leaders Partnership270 conducted a
program that helped develop regional teams
of policymakers and educators who developed
regional or local learning ecosystems. In 2019,
a national scale Ecosystem Accelerator has
been conducted in Russia by Global Education
Futures for 70+ members of 11 regional
leadership teams across the country. Each
team has designed a 3-year multistakeholder
roadmap that develops and weaves together
“The ecosystem on a very practical level
should be able to sustain its processes,
so we need a system that is first and
Photo: flickr.com/photos/tetsu-o/
foremost a playground”
Mila Popvich,
Founder, EVOLving Leadership

Yakutia regional learning ecosystem
The team of leaders from Yakutia, led by Vladimir
Solodov and Anatoly Semenov, can be seen as an
example of a regional ecosystem that has notably
benefited from the acceleration. Yakutia is the
largest single jurisdiction in the world (larger than
Argentina), and it is the region with the coldest
temperatures on all inhabitable Earth, with almost all
of its territory covered with permafrost. Population
is scarce, and people usually live in small villages
near rivers, separated by hundreds of kilometers. It
is the home to the indigenous population of yakuts
that comprise half of the population, and a number
of other indigenous groups, and still keep shamanic
rituals as a part of local government procedures.
However, since early 2010s a vibrant ICT sector
started to develop in the area, already creating a
number of globally recognized startups in transpor-
tation, mobile gaming, and more. Yakutia team has
joined MIT REAP cohort in 2018, and later joined
GEF Accelerator in early 2019. The focus of the MIT
1.
4. Introduction:
Ecosystemic The
Leadership
Future of
& Learning
program was very pragmatic: it helped the team
build up a system of metrics that allowed it to see
the dynamics of the entrepreneurial ecosystem,
and to create some strategic interventions such as
increased provision of capital to early stage startups.
The focus of the GEF program was on introducing
the “human element” and working with the talent
and the culture of the region. The team started to
create its “unifying story” of the ecosystem building
upon traditional yakut mythology. It connected the
needs of the emerging IT sector with institutions
that work with talented youth, and started to create
a “polygon of the future”, an experimental space near
the capital of Yakutia where young people can design
and prototype a future “way of being” in this unique
area, technology-enriched (e.g. intense use of solar
energy and hydroponic agriculture) yet also derived
from traditional ways of living. Finally, the team has
self-identified themselves as “ecosystem leaders”
and committed to help launch a new learning & inno-
vation ecosystem in one of the cities in Yakutia, the
coal mining city of Neryungri.
109
1. Ecosystemic
4. Introduction: Leadership
The Future &
of Learning
Learning
Teaching ecosystemic leaders with an ecosystem simulator
A simulator has shown to be a successful way of
training leadership teams in complex simulation
of the real world, by simulating them in virtual
environments. The Simulizator / SKOLKOVO team
has created multiple simulators to train corpo-
rate leaders and education system administrators,
including University Simulator, College Simulator
(jointly with ILO) and Regional Educational System
Simulator. Simulators are turn-based strategies
played by teams of leaders during 4-8 hours of simu-
lation, taking into account 1000-1500 parameters
The Ecosystem Simulator, as created by Pavel
Luksha and Simulizator team in 2018, models a
process of creation of a learning ecosystem on the
regional scale. The model integrates the knowledge
of over 20 ecosystemic projects around the globe
(also represented in this study) — and constantly
updates based on feedback from simulator “runs”
with teams of leaders. It is the first simulator that
captures the ontology of the emergent and evolving
field of practice in a digital model. .
Players take the roles of different ecosystem leaders,
playing as local government, schools, universities,
110
employers, parents, or NGOs. The main challenge of
players is to “raise” learning ecosystem by initiating
new educational programs, projects, and policies
(“gardening” the system) as well as building connec-
tions between providers and creating communities
of innovators (“weaving” the system). Players have
to address the variety of glocal challenges such as
improving local economy, adapting to new technolog-
ical innovations, reducing inequality, or overcoming
regional environmental crisis. They also have to take
care of their own personal thriving as without their
own wellbeing, they cannot contribute sustainably to
that of the place nor planet.
To support the work of this simulator, as well as a
standalone introduction, we create an experience
to introduce the concept of a learning ecosystem in
groups or events through an Ecosystem Board Game,
a simplified simulation that models how leaders
collaborate to create learning ecosystems for the
region to address challenges and to tap into its
possible success factors. In both the simulator and
the board game, strategic coordination is required to
succeed. The board game is free to use and can be
downloaded from the GEF website.

1. You add capacity here
2. but performance here only gets worse
Figure 15: Understanding the bottleneck in the process (by Tiago Forte272)
regional learning, innovative and entrepre-
neurial ecosystems. Among other initiatives,
participants have commenced new forums,
educational innovation competitions and
cross-regional STEM education associa-
tions, all of which serve to develop learning
ecosystems at the regional and cross-regional
scale.
A useful approach to gardening has emerged in
the GEF Ecosystem Accelerator. The accelerator
team and participants used the idea of
“acupuncture projects” that have maximal
systemic impact with minimal effort or cost.
Originally, this approach was coined by Jaime
Lerner, a great Brazilian urbanist, with the
concept of “urban acupuncture”271. To find the
areas for acupuncture projects, participants
applied the ideas from Goldratt’s Theory of
Constraints: that it necessary to identify and
work on components of the process that limit
the capacity of the whole system (see Figure
15). In the case of learning & innovation
ecosystems, they are multi-stakeholder,
multilayered systems organized around the
processes of developing innovations, entrepre-
neurial startups, and technological talent (as
271
https://www.ted.com/talks/jaime_lerner_sings_of_the_city/transcript?language=en
272
https://medium.com/praxis-blog/theory-of-constraints-106-the-five-focusing-steps-741f1b770bf1
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
3. because you are sending more work to the bottleneck
4. and the system throughput goes down because of
added capacity
discussed in Section 1.3). For instance, one of
the teams has identified as the limiting factor
the lack of meeting spaces that would allow
the hosting of large industrial gatherings.
Accordingly, even though the area is rich with
talent, startups, and technological companies,
when companies grow big enough they have to
move away because the area does not attract
a sufficient number of corporate clients and
partners. Another team understood that they
work in a very dispersed area with many small
villages and don’t have a community space
where children from all over the area could
come together for STEM education camps
and longer programs, and so the development
of technological skills in their territory is
inhibited. Youth skills fostering competitions
and local forums have been identified among
the acupuncture activities that could catalyze
the development of learning and educational
innovations in other areas.
111
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
4.5
Ecosystem
Lifecycles
Like any complex and organically developing
entity, ecosystems pass through various
and distinct phases of their existence. There
is a period of nascence or birth where an
ecosystem only starts to emerge, there are a
limited number of players (or founding partic-
ipants) who are present at this stage, links
between them are weak, the common vision
only just begins to emerge and joint activities
are scarce. This period is followed by a stage of
growth or expansion, when many more players
start to flow into the system, and many more
joint projects and initiatives emerge. At some
point, the inflow of new players and opportu-
nities drops, as the system goes into a plateau,
or maturity stage, which often assumes that a
certain type of leadership is achieved. Within
a mature ecosystem a system of relationships
is much more stabilized as its main challenge
Figure 17. Stages of business ecosystem lifecycle as suggested in (Moore, 1993273)
High
Birth Expansion
Maturity
Low
Evolution time
273
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324942808_The_Emerging_Role_of_the_Ecosystems_Architect
112
is to maintain indefinitely the dynamic status
quo. Eventually, some ecosystems can face
external disruptions (e.g. the rise of new
education technologies or major changes in
the economy and job markets) or even serious
internal contradictions (e.g. a change in the
generation of ecosystem leaders). Then they
either enter a downwards dynamics of the
decline and death, or they can begin redefining
themselves and be reborn or (self-)renewed
from within. For business ecosystems, these
stages of a lifecycle have been explored in the
seminal paper by James Moore (Figure 17).
The empirical analysis of Local Learning
Ecosystems by the Innovation Unit has
revealed that the majority of existing learning
ecosystem cases exists at earlier stages of
birth (hypothesis & visioning, and catalyzing
& initiating phases) and growth (dynamic
experimentation and mainstreaming phases).
During each of these stages, the system
fluctuates between ways of organizing that
are more emergent and those require designed
structure and action (Figure 18). Since none of
the projects scrutinized has gone through the
maturity and self-renewal stages, they are not
fully covered in the model.
Self-
Leadership Renewal

Emergent
Hypothesis and visioning
Hypothesis and visioning: E.g. LenPolyGraph-
Mash has a high potential vision and some very
good conditions, but a lack of immediate prog-
ress in terms of behavior change.
Catalysis and initiating
E.g. Swinburne are initiating multiple
programmers and engeging multiple
partners to create change. All momentum
Designed remains with them.
Figure 18. Innovation Unit’s learning ecosystem lifecycle model
GEF ran an Ecosystem Accelerator in Spring
and Summer 2019 to develop ecosystems
in practice. As part of this work the partici-
pants of the program explored the prospects
of ecosystem development at various stages
of the ecosystem lifecycle. In previous
sections of this report we have mostly scruti-
nized approaches derived from the practical
experience of learning ecosystem leaders.
However, it is important to note that the
majority of their projects still exist in stages
of early or active development. Therefore
it’s important to explore, in the form of a
collective hypothesis, how can the leadership
and collaborative roles and challenges evolve
as the ecosystems continue to develop on its
cycle. We share the insights below as an early
finding to provoke further collective explo-
ration of the elements of the ecosystem life
cycle in learning and beyond.
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
Dynamic Experimentation
E.g. LRNG are establishing new governance
and new programmers to meet emergent
challenges as they grow from an original
city to 16 different cities, as the learner
base grows and partners (and cities) join
and drop out.
Mainstreaming of sustaining
E.g. Kuopio Cultural Pathways have
become mainstreamed into schools
in kuopio, serving to enhance and
expand the existing formal educa-
tion experience.
The four stages of a lifecycle (birth-growth-ma-
turity-death) are classical stages. We invited
the GEF Ecosystem Accelerator participants
to explore the evolution of ecosystem leaders
tasks and approaches across these various
phases. Table 10 indicates how the main
leadership challenge lies in redefining models
of governance and communication at different
stages, as well as the types of competencies
and attitudes required. While every stage
indicates governance approaches and compe-
tencies that become critical at this stage, it
should be seen as also a cumulative list, that
those from earlier stages are either built upon,
embedded or also included dependent on the
ecosystem.
113
4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning
Stage of Main Challenges for
the Life Ecosystem Leaders
Cycle
Birth Begin the process of
ecosystem creation
Identify & involve the founding
members of the community
Set up common goals
Growth Engaging & weaving together
the critical mass of the
ecosystem
Design structures/ processes/
protocols that unite the
ecosystem
“Show traction” with real
achievements & initiatives
Maturity Increase unity and connections
Optimize and streamline
processes
Encourage influx of new
projects and ideas from within
and outside
Death or Recognize the dynamics of
rebirth dying — let go or relaunch
114
Models of Governance
& Communication
Initiation
Building the founding
members group
Discussing and aligning visions
Mapping opportunities
Catalyzation
Searching for ways to collab-
orate
Creating and telling stories
Designing roadmaps
Creating protocols for commu-
nication & collaboration
Prototyping & experimenting
Finding resources for imple-
mentation
Coordinating and connecting
the community horizontally and
vertically
Creating/analyzing “digital
footprint”
Building the critical mass
Scaling up
Standardization/template
design
Platform building
Unifying initiatives
Challenging status quo
Maintaining opportunities for
experimenting
Competitions & acceleration
programs
Using data/measurement to
optimize/renew
Introducing/activating new
processes & projects
Disseminating stories/
knowledge
Reusing/recycling resources
Archiving/storing artifacts
Relaunch (if possible)
Leadership Team Compe-
tences & Attitudes
Proactive behavior, courage,
readiness to act
Openness, tolerance &
readiness to cooperate
Trust building and collabo-
ration
Negotiations and partnership
building
Visionary & charismatic
leadership, ability to engage
Design thinking, project
designing and planning
Community building,
cross-team partnerships
Creativity, imagination and
play
Systems thinking
Maintaining unity
Understanding and sharing
other leaders’ stories
Fairness in distributing
resources & opportunities
Letting the way: mentoring,
readiness to encourage &
support other leaders’ initia-
tives
Reflection tools
Creativity in finding new ways
of being
Knowing when to leave/close
the project
Letting go
Being grateful
 4. Ecosystemic Leadership & Learning

The next table (Table 11) highlights the various
types of infrastructure that is typically required
at every stage of ecosystem evolution. We look
at the technological, institutional, physical,
and financial infrastructural resource that is
required to develop learning ecosystems.
As learning ecosystems evolve, so should
learners, learning institutions, and ecosystem
leaders themselves. Our challenge is to
remember that we are dealing with these
various phases of development of a complex
system that we aim to catalyze. We must
remember that we need to let go of limiting
ways of being that may have been used in the
past. The concept of unlearning, for example,
is becoming a popular one for this reason. The
latest WISE event was focused entirely on
bringing different stakeholders in education
to explore this together.274 Ecosystem leaders
must evolve to become a positive force of
collective evolution.

Birth / Technological Partners Physical Funding

initiation infrastructure institutions infrastructure

Birth / Social media, chat Informal communi- Coworking spaces Grants

initiation groups ties Free public areas/ Crowdfunding
Calendar / group Clubs cafes
work planning Universities
Crowdfunding Community centers
platforms

Growth New media Government devel- Learning hubs Business angels/VCs

platforms opment agencies Prototyping spaces Government funding
Assessment Marketplaces & labs
platforms (e.g. Startup accelerators Technoparks
badges) Corporations

Maturity Integration platforms Local & national Office spaces Loans

AI / data analytics government Public spaces (incl. Equity
Knowledge Large companies, parks & roads)
management esp. in ICT sector
Sectoral councils
Trade unions

Death or Archives Libraries Memorials/ Grants

rebirth museums/rituals

Table 10. Leadership challenges, governance & team competence models across the ecosystem lifecycle

274
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-10-07-what-we-need-to-unlearn-and-relearn-to-thrive-in-the-future

115
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

116
 1. Introduction: The Future of Learning

5
Rising
Momentum

117
5. Rising Momentum
5.1
Emerging
Principles
For Learning
Ecosystems
This report outlines the growing emergence
of learning ecosystems as a praxis around
the world. Based on the insights of research
contributors we understand learning
ecosystems to be intentional webs of relational
learning which are dynamic, evolving, and
enable greater diversity when fostering
lifelong learning opportunities. The purpose
of learning ecosystems are to offer pathways
for learners to actively co-create thrivable
futures for people, places and our planet. As
we have seen, the shift towards an ecosystem
approach is not only happening in learning and
education, but across many fields of human
endeavor. Ecosystem approaches allow us
to shift our ways of learning, thinking, being
and acting together toward collaboration and
interdependence. In education, this is a shift
toward a more interconnected and complex
way of learning that reflects the increasingly
complex future we live in today. The following
principles are offered as organizing principles
that can support creating the conditions for
ecosystemic learning.
The following principles are offered as a guide
for catalyzing learning ecosystems and are
a starting point from which to evolve as our
understanding of learning ecosystems grows:
118
Principle 1: Ecosystems respond to a
need, not a whim.
Ecosystemic initiatives are founded on
interrelationship and integrity. They address
a deep need that exists in a community.
They constantly seek ways to generate more
variety, more opportunities, more impact in
a more efficient way (e.g. in terms of cost, or
speed of delivery, or speed of adaptation).
Principle 2: Ecosystems emerge and
exist at the connection of personal,
local (place-based) and glocal
(planetary) dynamics, needs, and
purposes.
Ecosystems are not only a way of organizing
human learning, but also a pathways for
(non-violent and collaborative) societal and
planetary transformation.
Principle 3: Ecosystems foster systemic
impact.
Ecosystem, by virtuwe of their multi-stake-
holder and interdisciplinary nature create
“ripples” of change and innovation that
include and transcend local systems to include
adjacent systems over multiple time frames,
short, medium and long term which translates
into both broad and deep impact.

Principle 4: Conscious choice of
economic models.
There is usually a need to understand
and evolve the ecosystem in an economic
context. It should aim to (a) Prioritize models
that make the ecosystem and its actors
economically sustainable in the long term;
(b) Whenever possible, reduce those market
distortions that adversely affect diversity
and equity; (c) Align incentives to promote
sustainable and regenerative models.
Principle 5: Shared power and gover-
nance.
Organising learning and education resources
are a matter of societal, collective choice
and design so management should be decen-
tralised to the lowest appropriate level
and involve stakeholders of all disciplines
and relevant sectors of society. Whenever
possible, and applicable to context, diversity,
inclusivity and equity of ecosystem structures
and functionings should be one of the main
priorities of the ecosystem approach.
Principle 6: Learning on every level.
Ecosystems must evolve within the limits
of their functioning but provide whenever
possible lifelong learning opportunities, prior-
itising not only the individual learning journey,
but community, collective and planetary levels
in the online and offline spheres.
1. Introduction: The
5.Future
Rising of
Momentum
Learning
Principle 7: Whole being development.
Ecosystems seek the appropriate balance
between, and integration and conservation of,
successful pedagogical approaches and the
diversity of learning experiences and environ-
ments to provide holistic education.
Principle 8: Future-fit adaptive
education.
Ecosystems foster all key technological,
social, cultural and environmental transfor-
mations by providing relevant content and
learning methodologies. They also provide
spaces for collaborative prototyping for
future models of technology, economy,
society, and culture within learning contexts.
The content and the context of education
must help develop meta- and existential
competencies to adapt to future challenges
and to (re)learn quickly whenever needed, as
change is inevitable.
Principle 9: Education that supports
wellbeing.
Ecosystems equipe all with knowledge and
practices to take care of personal, and
collective, physical and mental health and
wellbeing and create an environment that
ensures the personal health and wellbeing
of every member and overall health of the
community and planet.
119
5. Rising Momentum

The principles can be put into practice as
we explore the questions of how might this
type of approach to living, working and being
bring transformation at three levels. We can
explore in ways such as draw upon mapping
our own personal, planetary and place-based
ecosystems (PPP Appendix 3.), as well as how
to enable our organisations become increas-
ingly ecosystemic (CORE Appendix 4.) Whilst
the ecosystem approach is emerging we
cannot ‘measure’ its benefits as of yet, but
based on our research it follows that if these
principles were followed and adapted to local
learning ecosystems contexts we could expect
to see their purposes fulfilled, as identified by
our ecosystem leaders, at the following levels:

a. Improved self care and wellbeing

b. Connection to self, local community and wider world
c. Increased individual value, purpose and meaning
d. Personal sustainable income generation
Personal e. Greater mastery through lifelong learning pathways
f. Passionate changemakers
g. Holistic growth
h. Establish significant connections with nature and living systems

a. Enable potential for all

b. Foster skills and opportunities for all
c. Develop diverse lifelong learning experiences
d. Create networks of support
Place-based e. Reveal collective wisdom feeds community
f. Engage with democracy and citizenship
g. Facilitate changemakers
h. Enhance innovation

a. Increased systemic changes to overcome collective challenges

b. Recognition of unique purpose and capabilities of humans
c. Linked together different ways of becoming
d. Greater equity, inclusivity & diversity
Planetary e. Cultivation of processes of healing
f. Unlocking of universal wellbeing
g. Developed collective consciousness
h. Evolved connective and collective intelligence for collective wisdom & growth
i. Creation of the skeleton/nervous system of the global civilisation

120
 5. Rising Momentum

There are many different ways anyone at any

5.2
age, in different stages can take steps towards
cultivating ecosystemic learning. Some steps
can affect all of us, such as improving your
ecosystemic, interconnected worldview, whilst
others can be tackled by only certain stake-

Co-creating
holders275, whilst some may focus on devel-
oping our personal capacities in communi-

the Practice
cation and collaboration. This journey invites
us all to explore opportunities for building

of Learning
relational and collaborative learning, to act
or practice embodying ecosystemic learning

Ecosystems
through experimentation and prototyping,
and finally to lead and co-create communities
and projects that cultivate local and global
learning ecosystems. The list below offers
some possible action steps for some typical
roles within learning ecosystems:

Explore: Act: Lead:

Learn about new methods
of teaching and ecosystemic
educational practices using
276
resources such as ASCD , tions with co-workers and
Teachers, WISE, Innovation Unit, Ashoka,
Educators, HundrED, Brookings Institute,
and Edutopia. Engage yourself in
Innovators: change oriented courses, e.g.
TheoryU.lab MOOC. Engage in
training to become a facilitator
of conversations and innova-
tion labs in your own institution
or community. Map your own
personal, place and planetary
ecosystem (see PPP approach
Appendix 4).
Deepen relationships by Begin your own community of
exploring and developing practice to connect learning to
ways to deepen your connec- local place, opportunities for
personalisation and passion,
the community. Begin conver- rhythms and rituals, develop-
sations in your own learning ment towards emerging new
institution about a possibility facilitation styles.
to cultivate your own learning
ecosystem. Understand needs
of your learners and your
community partners. Proto-
type collaborative formats and
learning communities.

Map your actual and possible
partners with tools such
as group map, mural, miro
and kumu, learn about new
Organiza- leadership styles such as teal
tional organizations and holocracies,
Leaders: and develop your own capacity
in community building.
Bring and model the cultural
shift within your own organiza-
tion using the CORE ecosystem
enablers. Intentionally expand
the diversity of relationships
of your organization and begin
weaving the community around
it.
Cultivate the conversation
between leaders in your area
or your sector how to become
more ecosystemically oriented.
Prototype your own ecosystem
acceleration processes, and
develop the capacity of your
team to organize ecosystems.

121
5. Rising Momentum

Explore: Act: Lead:

Map your learning needs and Start building your own Organize a peer-to-peer
your own ecosystem (See learning circle or community learning event (e.g. a confer-
PPP Appendix 3.). Explore the around the topics you like. ence, a camp, or a game) for
current and long-term interests Engage in collaborative activi- your friends or your commu-
Young and demands of your peers and ties within your ecosystem that nity. Help others to map their
People, your family that can become would connect people from ecosystem, and co create a
Parents, your partners in learning. many circles and organizations, local map online with tools
Families: Understand opportunities for such as learning festivals. such as LocalWiki.
your learning that exist in your
local area — and those that
might exist nationally, globally,
or online. Engage in a course
on “learning to learn” (e.g. the
one by Barbara Oakley).

Learn about new models of
funding that allow the support
277
to ecosystemic projects
Funders: Understand your preferred
ways of measuring success in
such comprehensive projects
with multidimensional impact.
Create long term approaches Share and showcase benefits
to funding projects that with other funding bodies.
. emphasize the relationship Create sectoral dialogues
building within your own on new models of impactful
ecosystem and cultivate your funding.
own community of impact.
Create opportunities for
partnerships and alliances
that will distribute the power
and resources within your
ecosystem more efficiently and
equitably.

Find out about new models of governance for complex education systems (e.g. the OECD work on
this topic278). Engage grassroot leaders and embrace multi-stakeholder oriented approaches to policy
making. Build authentic relationships, spanning party lines. Cultivate long-term purpose oriented
Policy
communities of practice that can stand behind policies you institutionalize.
Makers:

Explore and create research-informed ways to understand the emerging field of learning ecosys-
tems. Help better understand ecosystem ontology and methods of measuring ecosystems. Consider

Researchers: the impact of your research on various types of players within ecosystems, and support pathways
for transition for various stakeholders, including funders, policy makers, organizational leaders, and
others.

275
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:830252/FULLTEXT01.pdf
276
http://www.ascd.org/Default.aspx
277
https://socialinnovationsjournal.org/editions/finance-3/76-featured-social-innovations/2991-from-philanthropy-to-social-investment-funding-
the-ecosystem
278
http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/gces.htm

122

5.3
Final Reflections
In the words of Buckminster Fuller “Out of my
general world-pattern-trend studies, there
now comes strong evidence that nothing is
going to be quite so surprising or abrupt in
the forward history of man as the forward
evolution in the educational processes.”279
Our hope is that the work of those featured
in this report illuminates the emerging praxis
of learning ecosystems as a radical shift in
how we learn and lead together in the 21st
century advancing the evolution of education
and learning. “Each unique wave on the ocean
is created by the coming together of the
swell, resulting sometimes from storms that
happened days before and thousands of miles
away.”280 Whilst at times it may seem that
embracing ecosystemic learning makes our
work more complex and challenging, in fact
embracing complexity281 and embracing future
Jessica Spencer-Keyse Pavel Luksha
Moscow / London / Toronto, January 2020
279
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Education_Automation.html?id=JSeOPgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y
280
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/embracing-complexity-towards-fairness-sustainability-and-happiness/
281
https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199565252.001.0001/acprof-9780199565252
5. Rising Momentum
possibilities is a much more aligned way of
navigating the complex dynamics before us.
Learning ecosystems modeled after organic
complex adaptive systems aim to offer learning
pathways that are congruent with our 21st
century complexifying context. The journey of
creating learning ecosystems requires courage F
and stamina, it asks much from us and our
communities, and it invites work that can
span generations. This report has outlined the
indicators of learning ecosystem’s emergence
L
in the field, their purposes, the elements a
that can enable and currently hinder them e
as well as the roles and leadership required m
to cultivate them at the personal, place, and p
planetary levels. In the face of ecological,
social, economic, and cultural challenges and C
opportunities, we need ecologies of learning p
that foster collective benefit and evolu- b
tionary viability. The enthusiasm with which c
research contributors shared their successes C
and failures in the continued work of co-cre- a
ating learning ecosystems suggests to us that r
learning ecosystems may provide pathways of c
hope and possibility for the future of learning.
S
The future is ours to co-create.
f
n
Joshua Cubista
123
1. Rising
5. Introduction:
Momentum
The Future of Learning

We understand learning ecosystems

to be intentional webs of relational
learning which are dynamic, evolving,
and enable greater diversity when
fostering lifelong learning opportunities.
The purpose of learning ecosystems
are to offer pathways for learners to
actively co-create thrivable futures for
people, places and our planet.

124

Afterword
By Victoria Haro,
Co-founder & Lead Weaver University of the Environment: Mexico (UMA) & Co-founder The Weaving Lab
This report represents a learning ecosystem
researching itself. The resulting framework has
two characteristics I find particularly valuable:
a) It was created by identifying patterns in the
reflections of practitioners experimenting
with the ideas behind the framework. Hence,
the Learning Ecosystem Principles proposed
are not an ideological construct, but rather
the description of a pattern arising from
practice.
b) It offers a set of specific and simple appli-
cation experiments, with an open invitation
to co-create the framework further.
In service to co-designing conditions for
thriving learning ecosystems, I would like to
share some key ideas and questions I believe
are useful to bear in mind while experi-
menting with the framework 282.
Diversity
Calling a project, an organization or community
an ecosystem, emphasizes diversity as well
as the inclusion of nature. Firstly, this means
appreciating the need for diversity in order
to widen the scope of roles, perspectives
and interactions that increase the resilience,
creativity and critical revision of the system.
Secondly, it implies inviting any actor that has
a relevant influence on the system’s goals. For
example, inviting parents, students and educa-
tional authorities alongside teachers to reflect
upon the learning process of a school. Thirdly,
it calls for involving nature, beyond the human
species, not only as beneficiaries of our efforts,
but also as members of the system. In what
creative ways may they be represented? How
can we learn from them?
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
Diversity is more easily proposed than
achieved. By ordinary paradigms, it may be
uncomfortable for a school to be transparent
with mistakes or doubts with parents, students
and authorities. Moving to sharing responsi-
bility, co-designing, and thinking on nature as
partner, is a journey. Moreover, many views
today are closed to diversity, proclaiming that
everyone should live basically in the same
way, whether that means following the same
religious beliefs or eating habits. Indeed,
diversity tends to be more of a counterculture
experience than it seems. Permitting diversity
implies accepting more complex agreements
and solutions, as well as decision processes
based on evidence rather than ideology.
Learning
Becoming a learning ecosystem implies having
explicit and systematic processes to identify,
reflect and share how to better reach and live
for a common purpose. An ecosystem is not a
learning system by default: learning requires
design. It also requires time and organi-
zation. And lots of joyful patience. Humans
and their organizations are always learning –
but efficient, interconnected learning requires
process, documentation, measurement, and
above all, collaborative reflection time. We
are still figuring out what does a learning
community process really entail. What should
our expectations be? How do we create the
time for it? What processes work and are fun
and effective? How do we make it as simple as
possible and still significant?
282
The footnotes of this afterword share some thought-provoking
readings related to the concepts being referenced.
125
Afterword
Interrelated wellbeing
The learning ecosystems framework proposes
as meta-purpose the interrelated wellbeing of
self, community and nature. What wellbeing
means is of course at the heart of each
ecosystem’s research, but the crux is in the
interrelations between the personal, social and
planetary dimensions. How does my wellbeing
really connect with other’s wellbeing? If I walk
in the forest for meditation, is this promoting
the wellbeing of nature too? How do we
develop deliberate practices for interrelated
wellbeing?
A learning process for interrelated wellbeing
in an organization may begin, for example,
by asking its respective members what are
their wellbeing practices for self, community
and nature. Then invite them to find inter-
connections. Afterwards, the community can
collaborate to find patterns of practices and
relations, revealing the wellbeing culture of
the group. This then permits the organiza-
tion´s community to better its practices,
intentionally, thereby coevolving its culture.
This experience at UMA has brought powerful
results and changes through the awareness of
how weak the interconnection of our wellbeing
practices tends to be.
Impact, scale and scope
All of the above implies that a central invitation
of the learning ecosystems framework is to
direct more energy into relationships and
learning. Whatever energy we are investing in
these two realms, the invitation is to exper-
iment with investing more. Maybe radically
more. Not only in relationships and learning
inside our ecosystem, but also with other
ecosystems. The latter is an invitation to
make a stronger bet on impact and change
happening through networks of ecosystems,
and not through individual organizations. This
calls for directing attention to connections
rather than to scale: growing relations instead
of growing organizations. To become weavers.
126
In terms of the scope of the learning
ecosystem movement or field, it appears
important to envision a world where every
family, neighborhood, school, organization,
community, industry and government is a
learning ecosystem for interrelated wellbeing;
but it is just as important to be comfortable
with the goal of a world where (some) learning
ecosystems simply exist in a resilient, inter-
connected and evolving way. This is already a
challenging aim.
Risks
There are many interesting challenges for
learning ecosystems to thrive, but I would
like to address four risks that seem especially
important. They refer to broad cultural
phenomena within the context where learning
ecosystems are emerging. They have a double
feature: they are risks to be avoided, but also
represent cultural references that must be
transformed if we are to aim for a world of
peace and learning – or at least bubbles of it. I
believe the learning ecosystem movement is a
powerful means for this.
a) Superficiality in learning:
Many of our formal learning processes are
full of superficiality: ephemeral memorization,
de-contextualization, false consciousness.
Learning ecosystems however require a
culture of deep inquiry and reflection. This
is not only about transcendental and fun
processes. There is another, less noted
point: there is no clear way to identify if our
knowledge on a subject is superficial except
by submitting it to continuous and rigorous
testing through individual and collaborative
inquiry as well as evidence gathering. Evidence
is not necessarily technical data that can only
be gathered by specialists, but also encom-
passes experience and information gathered
through ‘simple’ (i.e. not expert) ways. This
scientific approach fine-tunes our systemic
understanding, but more importantly, it inhibits
the declaration of unfounded (or not carefully

thought) propositions. The power of the scien-
tific approach as an antidote for superficiality
is frequently undermined by the view that it
is the business only of scientists, that it has
produced an extractive relation to the world,
that it only addresses material phenomena or
that it is divorced of intuitive or experiential
processes283. However, none of these claims
has to do with the scientific method itself, but
rather with a materialistic, expert-isolated,
unethical and non-integral application of it
(which is, to be sure, quite extended)284.
Moreover, the scientific process entails some
helpful features which are often misunder-
stood. For example, it implies a skeptical
attitude whereby all knowledge is held as a
hypothesis (not immovable truth) that may be
overthrown at any time by new evidence or a
better hypothesis. A true scientific approach
also welcomes diversity and dialogue. Indeed,
its very essence is to promote different views.
Learning ecosystems could train and expand a
‘citizen’ scientific approach that fosters deeper
knowledge as well as freedom, since it implies
that no recourse to the faith of an estab-
lished dogma is accepted as valid, skeptics are
always welcome, and no argument is held to
be above the test of evidence. 
 general culture of fear, so that the endeavor
b) Worldview fanaticism:
Fanaticism is a behavior involving uncritical zeal
to impose worldviews, actions and lifestyles
on others. It totally impairs learning, diversity
and evolution, whilst promoting violence. The
human cultural tendency towards fanaticism,
religiosity, and self-righteousness is strong276
and should be taken seriously in any learning
ecosystem design, particularly when directed
to interrelated wellbeing. The development
of reflective practices and the incorporation
of a scientific style in learning experiences
help weaken fanaticism, but it needs to be
addressed explicitly to avoid any concepts of
wellbeing being imposed on others, as well as
to undercut its advance in the world. Moreover,
‘scientific fanaticism’ is also possible. This for
example happens when a majority opinion
Afterword
among scientists is elevated into a dogma,
when non-intellectual experience is deemed
invaluable in principle, or when scientific
endeavor is constrained by dogma to certain
axioms or areas of inquiry –in short, when a
true scientific approach ceases to operate285.
c) Fear as incentive:
Fear is an expected consequence of looming
socio-environmental crisis. Fear may be an
effective catalyst of action; however, action
emerging from fear without understanding is
prone to fanaticism. It is worrisome that fear is
being used in many instances (unintentionally
and intentionally) as a medium for social and
environmental awareness and action286. The
use of fear as a catalyst for action does not
honor human dignity and sets the ground for
manipulation. Fear is often transformed into
anger, and this nurtures dogmatic thought. On
the other hand, fear may also be a paralyzing
force. Recently, fear of the world in general
and of wilderness in particular, have been
detected as a rising problem, particularly
in children (ecoanxiety and biophobia287).
Learning ecosystems should take care of
avoiding fear as motivator or seed, as well
as explicitly addressing and discouraging the
for interrelated wellbeing is possible. This
does not imply evading problems face-to-face,
which is a requirement if we are to solve them.
It just means not using fear to make them
visible; for example, though exaggerating
phenomena to call attention288.
283
Acosta, Alberto (2013). “Extractivism and neo-extractivism”, pp
61-87 in Beyond Development: Alternative Visions from Latin
America.
284
Sheldrake, Rupert. (2013). Setting Science Free From Materialism.
New York: Explore
285
Tormey, Natacha (2017). Cults: A Bloodstained History. USA:
Fonthill Media
286
Adam Klein (2017). Fanaticism, Racism, and Rage Online:
Corrupting the Digital Sphere. USA: Springer
287
Yu-Kang Lee Et al (2017). What Sells Better in Green Communica-
tions: Fear or Hope? Journal of Advertising Research, December.
288
Cegarra, Laura (2017). “Extending Environmental Ethics through
Fear”. Harvard University-Sustainability.
289
Ulrich, Roger. (1993). “Biophilia, biophobia, and natural landscapes”,
pp. 73-137 in The Biophilia Hypothesis, Island Press.
127
1. Introduction: The Future of Learning
Afterword
d) Disregard or undervaluation of the human
species:
Learning ecosystems value the human
potential for promoting interrelated wellbeing.
However, there are some views that endorse
a negative and contemptuous perspective of
humans. For example, the view of humans
as virus and parasites of Earth289, the view
of humans as irremediable destroyers, or the
view of Nature being better off if humans
went extinct290. These views may promote
practices where human wellbeing is not highly
valued, and also have psychological costs to
our self-esteem as humans, sometimes even
promoting inter-generational hostility by
convincing children and adolescents that older
generations have failed them.
These views disconnect humans from compre-
hending ourselves as part of a species in
evolution, seeking adaptation to changing
conditions. Instead, it infuses us with a
consciousness-undermining process of guilt
and anger. The evolutionary view, in which
the human species is seen as immersed in
continuous adaptation-learning processes
through time and history, strengthens human
dignity and creativity, and thereby fosters the
possibilities of conscious cultural evolution. An
explicit evolutionary view therefore seems to be
useful and appropriate for learning ecosystems.
Note that this view does not imply justifying
those who intentionally have harmed others. Its
outlook is at a species and cultural level.
290
John C Briggs (2017), Emergence of a sixth mass extinction?
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Vol. 122, Issue 2, pp
243–248
291
Pauly, Daniel (2014). Homo sapiens: cancer or parasite? Ethics in
Science and Environmental Politics. Vol. 14: 7–10
292
Knight, Les. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement: http://
www.vhemt.org/
293
Verbos, Amy & Humphries, Maria. (2013). A Native American
Relational Ethic. Journal of Business Ethics No. 123.
294
Bhikkhu, Thanissaro (2016). We Are Not One: Interdependence is
not what you (and many others) may think. Tricycle: The Buddhist
Review.
128
Opportunities
There are also many rich opportunities to
harness in the general context of learning
ecosystems emergence. Again, I will refer
to four I see as particularly special. They all
have the potential of firing the ecosystem
movement with available and free energy.
a) Cultural appropriation of interdependence:
The concept of interdependence is gaining
unprecedented cultural ground, providing
fertile soil for learning ecosystems, which are
all about collaboration and interconnection.
Several cultures have developed a deep under-
standing of interdependence (as some Native
American tribes, for example291), and some
philosophical traditions have highly sophisti-
cated theories of it (the Buddhist traditions,
for example292); what is unprecedented is how
widespread this idea is now becoming, due to a
heightened understanding of ecological inter-
dependence and biological evolution. Grasping
the phenomenon of interdependence is funda-
mental to understanding what is to be human,
as well as foundational for appreciation of
other humans, other species and the rest of
nature. This is all essential to the emergence
and cohesion of learning ecosystems.
b) Internet as a network blueprint:
The internet makes possible that individuals
and learning ecosystems exchange information
and experiences, thereby increasing possibil-
ities of adaption and survival, both for ourselves
and other species. This is an unprecedented
opportunity. Moreover, the very structure of
the internet, resilient and self-emergent with
millions of connected nodes of information,
is a blueprint for the formation of a global
web of learning ecosystems. To fully seize
this opportunity, learning communities and
individuals must increase the quality of the
learning experience that internet facilitates.
Indeed, the internet is such a new feature of
our society that there is still a feeble culture
of scientific inquiry and dialogue helping distill
and organize the enormous amount of infor-
mation to which we now have access. We

need to foster methodologies to differentiate
valuable information from propaganda, misin-
formation and half-truths. This capacity need
not be left to specialists but can be built into
the consciousness of all members of learning
communities. The creation of online systems
of collaborative inquiry is crucial to maximize
creative innovation and research. Projects like
Wikipedia have proven that there is enormous
will from ordinary citizens to participate in
the generation of public knowledge. Thus,
platforms designed for collaborative inquiry
within a ‘citizen’ scientific process would imply
a valuable evolution of human collaboration.
c) Cornucopia of alternative learning systems:
As this report has shown, there is a notorious
growth of alternative educational systems
generating diverse proposals for meaningful,
non-hierarchical, systemic learning processes.
These are all useful references for learning
ecosystems. So although we are still exploring
viable (and joyful!) ways to make an ecosystem
a learning system, there is an abundance of
possible processes that are being documented
and enthusiastically shared293. Learning
ecosystems may harness this growing culture,
experimenting with methods and tools of
the alternative schools, while emphasizing
diversity and interrelated wellbeing, as well as
moving the learning ecosystem model outside
of schools and into organizations, neighbor-
hoods, cities and governments.
d) Interest for more holistic lifestyles:
The joy, need and possibility for developing
integrally our human emotional, intellectual,
spiritual, artistic, social and physical dimen-
sions, has been strengthening as new human
development and learning models raise the
value of holistic development for our wellbeing.
295
HundrED: Hub of global education innovations: https://
hundred.org/en
296
Harth, Ed. (2018). The Feuerstein perspective on the
modification of cognitive performance, in Focus on
Exceptional Children 15(3).
297
Kamin, L. J. (1974). The Science and Politics of IQ.
Potomac, Maryland: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1. Introduction: The Future ofAfterword
Learning
Additionally, neuroscience and contemplative
traditions have recognized the plasticity of
our brain and its continuous ability to learn
and be transformed294. This expels the idea
that we are born with a determined and
unchangeable level or quality of intelligence
(as IQ tests pretend to measure295), or that
we have the capacity to develop only some of
our dimensions but not all of them. Learning
ecosystems can connect to the holistic devel-
opmental aspiration, as well as apply it to the
research of interrelated wellbeing: what could
be a holistic development of a community or
of the planet?
A vision of future
The possibility of a world full of intercon-
nected learning ecosystems that share the
common interest of interrelated wellbeing
across diverse cultural, religious, economic
and political paradigms, is invigorating and
encouraging. It also seems our best bet as
a conscious cultural evolutionary strategy.
Learning ecosystems that foment creativity
and diversity while promoting accords are
essential if we are to thrive. Diverse universes
of inquiry where differences are resolved
through evidenced-based processes have a
good probability of emerging if superficiality,
fanaticism, fear and undervaluation of the
human species are forestalled; as well as if
we harness and enhance the awareness of
interdependence, the internet blueprint for
human networks, the abundance of alternative
learning processes, and the interest for holistic
lifestyles.
A human mind, as a system of connected
neurons, is already a learning system
where creativity and diversity may flourish
while simultaneously resolving differences.
This neurological system also somehow
permitted the emergence (or expression) of
consciousness. One can only wonder at the
potential of a larger, emergent system of
“neurons” in the form of learning ecosystems
around the globe.
129
About the Authors
Pavel Luksha

Pavel Luksha is a global thinker, change catalyst, and facilitator working with
systemic social innovations in education, business, social entrepreneurship,
culture, and urban development. Pavel is the founder of Global Education
Futures initiative, he is the Professor at Moscow School of Management
SKOLKOVO and at the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires (ITBA), the
Education Partner of Global Venture Alliance, and a co-founder of Weaver
Labs, Voice of Youth initiative, and Living Cities movement. Pavel sits on the
Supervisory boards of the University 20.35 and EcoClass, on the Advisory
boards of Whittle Schools & Studios and Laszlo Institute for the New Paradigm
Research, and in the Expert Council of the Russian Agency for Strategic Initia-
tives.

He is the founding member of the UN Working Group on the Future of Capital,

and the cofounder of Future Skills R&D Alliance of WorldSkills International.
In 2015, he was the Chair of BRICS Skills Development Working Group, and
also is an expert of the International Labor Organization on Lifelong Learning.

He is the co-author of the Rapid Foresight methodology used by thousands

of futurists and practitioners across the world, and in 2012-15 has been the
program director of a globally unique Foresight Fleet, and also co-founded
“Boiling Point” future co-creation spaces (currently in 41 cities across Russia).

In 2009-13, he worked in technology innovation management education,

authored SKOLKOVO-Rosatom program that received EFMD Excellence in
Practice Award, and co-founded Russian R&D Directors Club. He also initiated
and catalyzed NeuroNet initiative which since 2014 has become the major
Russian R&D+i consortium in brain research and neural technologies.
Contact Information:
He is the lead author of numerous Global Education Futures reports, including
Email pavel.luksha@gmail. “Educational Ecosystems for Societal Transformation” (2018), “Future Skills:
com How to Thrive in a New Complex World” (2017), “Global Education Futures
Phone / WhatsApp / Agenda” (2014) (all available at www.globaledufutures.org), and the “Atlas of
Telegram: +79853337942
Facebook: www.facebook.
Emerging Jobs”, one of the most detailed global compendiums of new and
com/luksha emerging jobs (available at www.atlas100.ru/en) — works that have catalyzed
LinkedIn: https:// systemic innovations in Russian education system and in several emerging
ru.linkedin.com/in/pluksha
economies.

Pavel is a poet (published two books), an artist, a photographer, and an avid

traveler. He is married and is a father of three daughters. He currently lives
in Moscow, Russia.

130
 About the Authors

Jessica Spencer-Keyse

Jessica Spencer-Keyse is a transdisciplinary researcher, facilitator, writer, and

artist co-creating learning ecosystems for thrivable futures. She identifies as
a multipotentialite, but has particular experience within and across learning,
ecosystems, education, psychology, youth, arts and innovation worldwide.
She most recently produced two qualitative pieces of research, with Global
Education Futures, the one above and another which shares insights on how
schools and educational institutions can evolve and develop as learning organi-
zations in collaboration with Whittle Schools and Studios and HundrED. Prior
to this, she developed processes and frameworks to understand education
innovations for impact and scalability at HundrED, interviewing 200+ of the
most inspiring innovators of holistic learning worldwide. She sought insight
from all stakeholders in this processes, an advocate for about inclusivity and
diversity, highlighted in the Every Child to Flourish research report she wrote
showcasing the voices of nearly 400 young people worldwide on what they
feel needs to urgently improve in education, featured in Forbes as a ‘stand
out’ piece for this reason.

She is a deeply passionate individual, currently focused on developing

authentic, playful, relationships and embodied experiences for transformative
learning. She does so at three levels: 1) one-to-one learning coaching experi-
ences, particularly supporting those looking to overcome trauma from their
education 2) regenerative research and 3) facilitating connective experiences
in multiple stakeholder environments to support individual and collective
Contact Information: growth, healing and societal evolution. She is currently immersed in a learning
journey in London, exploring and facilitating with 12 other wonderfully
Email: jspencerkeyse@ curious humans, courtesy of Enrol Yourself. Other community learning include
gmail.com;
Twitter & Instagram: @
supporting and working with The Weaving Lab, an approach to leadership
jspencerkeyse; that relies less on hierarchical authority and centralised control, and more on
Website: www.jessi- curating circles, hosting conversations and building trusted relationships, as
caspencerkeyse.com
well as Challenge 59 and Sisterhood for whom she is on the Trustee Board.
She is also intensely connected to dance, 5rhythms, poetry, journaling and
meditation as practices which nourish herself, to nourish her work.

131
About the Authors
Contact Information:
Websites: Joshuacubista.com
socialinnovationinstitute.org
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/
joshuacubista/
132
Joshua Cubista
Joshua Cubista is the Dean of The Social Innovation Institute in Toronto,
Canada and as a global citizen has traveled, lived, and worked in 30+ countries
including Japan, Canada, U.S.A, Europe, Mexico, China, and Kazakhstan,
including diverse Eco-villages and Human Potential Education centers around
the world.
Joshua is an international experiential designer, facilitator and strategist
focusing on personal, social, and systemic leadership capacity building. He is
the author Prototyping Our Future: Social Labs For A Sustainable, Regener-
ative & Thriving Future, a co-author of the Global Education Futures Report:
Educational Ecosystems For Societal Transformation, and of Systems Change
Education In an Innovation Context.
Joshua is the founder of Evolution Lab, a design atelier offering experiential
and experimental prototyping and innovation processes for organizations,
communities and multi-stakeholder groups. Additionally, Joshua designed
the Permaculture For Systemic Change course at Prescott College, and is a
co-founder of Global Education Futures.
Joshua holds a MSc. in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability from
BTH in Sweden, a B.A. in Sustainable Community Development and Integral
Psychology from Prescott College, as well as being a Global Sustainability
Fellow with The Sustainability Laboratory, and a Fellow with the Institute
For Sustainable Social Change at Prescott College, The Academy of Systems
Change, and The Biophilia Foundation.
Through his work Joshua designs and facilitates a wide range of initiatives
including university courses, leadership and human potential trainings, confer-
ences, celebrations, purpose driven organizational change and sustainable
community development projects. Joshua’s work unites human potential,
collaborative leadership, and systems approaches to co-creating optimal
responses to the complex opportunities and challenges of the 21st century.
Ecosystem Thrivalists we believe are
the life affirming leaders who serve and
support the capacity building of learners
and leaders within learning ecosystems.
The work of ecosystem thrivalists is to
foster learning and impact that goes
beyond survival or subsistence toward
thriving for all.

133
Gratitudes
We would like to extend our deepest gratitude
to Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO,
and the Head of SKOLKOVO Education
Development Center Olga Nazaykinskaya in
particular, for providing the opportunity and
funding for this research. We also express
sincere thanks to SKOLKOVO team members
Olga Shakuro, Elena Ponomareva and Petr
Tutaev for supporting the research process
and providing ideas for understanding the
work of ecosystem leaders. This would not be
possible without the active, authentic partici-
pation of educational leaders and researchers,
particularly the 38 learning ecosystem projects
and people who shared with us the privilege
of learning their stories, dreams and motiva-
tions allowing us to gain deep insight into the
complex and multifaceted work of ecosystem
organizing. Your work is inspiring and trans-
formational, so much of what we know can
be possible for this new emerging education
paradigm shines from your guiding light.
We would like to extend great appreciation also
to The Weaving Lab and Ashoka Foundation,
particularly Ross Hall, Noa Lodeizen and Nick
Graham (co-founders of The Weaving Lab) for
creating a wonderful international community
of ecosystem weavers, hosting events and
leadership educational experiences for them,
and for developing a number of ideas and
frameworks together with us on the nature
of ecosystem organization. We would also
like to thank the Russian Agency for Strategic
Initiatives, NTI Platform, NTI STEM Clubs
134
movement, and in particular Alexey Fedoseev,
Dmitry Zemtsov, Mikhail Prosekin, Andrey
Siling, Yulia Gudach, Oleg Grinko, Alexey Gusev,
Kirill Soloveychik, Liana Kobzeva, and Levan
Tatunashvili, and leadership teams from 11
regions of Russia, for their active participation
and collaboration in the Global Education
Futures (GEF) Ecosystem Accelerator
held during Spring and Summer 2019. Also thank
you to Mikhail and Daniil Kozharinov, Oksana
Glazunova, Irina Bryuzgina and other members
of the Ecosystem Accelerator team who
helped co create and conduct the accelerator
and develop its theoretical foundations. Petr
Tutaev and his Simulizator team have also
worked hard to design learning ecosystems
accelerator, while Dmitry Zabirov and his
Kazan team helped create the amazing
ecosystem board game, both of which helped
strengthen our ideas for this report. Also,
another great thank you to Lika Chekalova
who participated in the early stages of this
research and drafted some of its texts. We
are also grateful for our collaborators at the
Global Education Leaders Partnership and
the cofounders, Valerie Hannon and Anthony
Mackay, for their continuing commitment
to the subject of learning ecosystems, and
opportunities for many insightful conver-
sations and collaborations over the years.
The recent 2019 report by Valerie and her
team at the Innovation Unit, “Local Learning
Ecosystems: Emerging Models”, has served as
one of the inspirations and the springboards
for own work.
 Gratitudes

We deeply thank the global network of Global We believe the emerging practice of learning
Education Futures collaborators, advisors, ecosystems around the world represents a
and sponsors who have provided us support profound shift in how we learn together in
over the years. Specifically we would like to the 21st century and beyond. We dedicate
thank co-founder of GEF, Alexander Laszlo, this report to the flourishing of all people,
whose current work in Argentina with Vivir the places we live and learn together, and our
Agradecidos foundation on cultivating multi- planet.
scale learning ecosystems is an exemplary
manifestation and a prototype of frameworks
presented in this report. As well as Anneloes
Smitsman, Gaby Arenas, Vishal Talreja, Jan
Owen, Zineb Mouhyi, Valentina Ramen and
Alexander Asmolov for your inspirational work
on learning ecosystems around the world and
your contributions to this report. We have
been fortunate enough to gain feedback
from an ever diverse group of ecosystem and
education thrivalists for whom we thank for
their thoughtful and important feedback on
earlier drafts of this report, some of which we
have already mentioned: Erin Blanding, Luis
Camargo, Lika Chekalova, Michael Crawford,
Daniel Ford, Jordi Díaz Gibson, Karima Grant,
Valerie Hannon, Alexander Laslzo, and George
Pór.

And, as always, we thank our families, friends,

communities and dear partners for their
patience, love and kind support that allows us
to continue our work in the world.

135
Appendix
Appendix 1
Contributors
Short profiles written by contributors
who were interviewed and/or shaped
insights in this report:
AkademPark
What does your organisation/s do: An
ecosystem organizer for the learning and
innovation ecosystem inside Akademgorodok,
a scientific town in Novosibirsk State
University, Siberia Division of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, and many hitech
companies in ICT, biotech, new materials, and
other industries, and many other institutions.
Where are they based: Novosibirsk,
Russia
How is this organisation ecosys-
temic?: It weaves connections within a local
ecosystem, brokering relationships between
education, research, innovation, and culture
at the local level. As an operator of Novosi-
birsk Boiling Point coworking space, it also
constantly hosts events and activities that
connect all parties within the ecosystem
together — innovation competitions, learning
festivals, meetups and more.
Contact: Levan Tatunashvili, https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=_j5Os7-zJGE
ASCD
What does your organisation/s do:
ASCD empowers educators to achieve excel-
lence in learning, teaching, and leading so
that every child is healthy, safe, engaged,
supported, and challenged.
Where are they based: USA
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Take a multilayered, multi-stakeholder
approach to impact having created oppor-
136
tunities to work through books, webinars,
conferences, consulting services, online
learning, video, community, teacher leadership
and advocacy. ASCD is dedicated to creating
meaningful partnerships with organizations
that support our core mission in championing
educators who support the whole child.
Contact: Sean Slade: http://www.ascd.org/
Default.aspx,
Ashoka — Changemaker
Education & Social Innovation
Communications
What does your organisation/s do:
Ashoka is the world’s oldest and largest
network of social entrepreneurs — a peer
community of visionary Ashoka Fellows 3,500
strong worldwide and growing — whose
system-changing innovations solve
deep-rooted social problems. Ashoka learns
from the patterns in their innovations, and
mobilizes a global community to build a world
where everyone is a changemaker.
Where are they based: HQ is in Arlington,
Virginia USA but we have offices & programs
in over 90 countries around the world.
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Ashoka takes a systems approach to change
and collaborates with innovators across the
social innovation and education ecosystem
to transform people, ideas, institutions,
culture and policy. We partner with a network
of organizations to help shift mindsets and
reshape how we learn, work, and live together
(including schools, universities, corporations,
citizen sector organizations, media, and other
influencers).
Contact: Laura Hay: lhay@ashoka.org /
parnter@ashoka.org
Ashoka Global: https://www.ashoka.org/ /
Twitter: @Ashoka / Facebook: @AshokaORG
Ashoka USA: https://ashoka-usa.org/ / Twitter:
@AshokaUS / Facebook: @AshokaUSA

Autens; Global Schools Alliance
What does your organisation/s do:
Autens specialises in 3rd Millennium learning,
schools and learning spaces. We work collab-
oratively on visionary projects transforming
or rebuilding schools to embrace and support
all kinds of children growing up in the global
world of today.
The Global Schools’ Alliance was formed
in 2012 by progressive schools worldwide
because they realized that while the
world is rapidly changing, education and
schools are not. The GSA wants to change
that. Member schools are amongst the
highest rated schools in their respective
countries — ranging from preschools to high
schools — and have agreed to bring their
experience and knowledge to work together
to improve the standards of education
globally. GSA connects child-focused
innovators with like-minded educational insti-
tutes around the world by sharing research,
support, and peer critiques with the goal of
revolutionizing education and institutional-
izing child-centered learning.
Where are they based: Denmark; Interna-
tional
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Autens has a wide network of other consul-
tancies, designers, architects, engineers,
teachers etc that we collaborate with, inten-
tionally multistakeholder.
Contact: Lene Jensby: lene@autens.dk
https://www.globalschoolsalliance.org/ https://
www.autens.dk/english/
Buckminster Fuller Institute
What does your organisation/s do: For
30 years, BFI has served the international
network of Fuller-inspired innovators through
the maintenance of a comprehensive Infor-
mation Clearinghouse on R.B Fuller, including
a detailed inventory of the practices and
principles informing Fuller’s approach to
design innovation; articles featuring contem-
Appendix
porary applications of Fuller’s approach
published in BFI’s website, monthly email
newsletter, and on-line books; audio and video
archives; and Dymaxion Artifacts, BFI’s online
store featuring educational tools.
Where are they based: USA
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Our programs combine unique insight into
global trends and local needs with a compre-
hensive approach to design by facilitating
convergence across the disciplines of art,
science, design and technology, drawing
attention to and supporting the best
examples of whole-system thinking, and
offering resources and educational platforms
that inspire the next generation of design +
science practitioners.
Contact: David McConville & Kurt Przybilla
https://www.bfi.org/
CommunityShare
What does your organisation/s do: We
engage a network of community individuals
and organizations and educators throughout
a region to support place-based, real-world
learning opportunities in schools and commu-
nities.
Where are they based: Tucson, Arizona
USA and expanding to new regions
How is this organisation ecosys-
temic?: The focus of our work is on building
relationships and reweaving social, intel-
lectual, creative and cultural capital across
socioeconomic, geographic and institutional
lines in a region. Ecosystems are based on
relationships.
Contact: Joshua Schachter: team@commu-
nityshare.us, www.communityshare.us
137
Appendix
Culture Design Labs
What does your organisation/s do:
Culture Design Labs work is a dedicated
effort is made to (1) identify a systemic social
challenge of great urgency and importance;
(2) bring together the requisite knowledge
from many different fields; (3) design of
group collaboration processes to apply this
knowledge to the problem that has been
identified; and (4) setting up appropriate
systems for monitoring and analysis to
inform, shape, and guide the change effort.
Where are they based: Rancho Margot,
Costa Rica
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Culture Design Labs focuses on pathways
to transit through the planetary environ-
mental crisis, by working with bioregions
that become hosts of learning and cultural
innovation ecosystems. The lab creates
bioregion based prototypes, one of which is
Regenerative Costa Rica Hub.
Contact: Joe Brewer, https://www.patreon.
com/joe_brewer
Dream a Dream; Partners for
Youth Empowerment
What does your organisation/s do:
Dream a Dream is a registered, charitable
trust empowering children and young people
from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome
adversity and flourish in the 21st century
using a creative life skills approach. Currently,
they work with 10,000 young people a
year through two innovation labs — After
School Life Skills Programme and Career
Connect Programme; have trained over
7700 teachers/educators from 206 partners
impacting over 192,500 children and young
people and have impacted over 1 Mn
children through the Happiness Curriculum
in partnership with the Delhi Government.
Dream a Dream is building a movement to
transform and repurpose education that will
help each child learn to Thrive.
138
Partners for Youth Empowerment is a global
organization dedicated to unleashing the
creative power of youth and adults. We
provide training and support for organi-
zations and individuals who work with
youth—educators, youth workers, social
service professionals, and mentors. Using our
proven Creative Empowerment Model, adults
learn to lead transformative programs that
empower youth with critical life skills. We are
a Washington State-based non-profit and we
have charity status in the UK.
Where are they based:
Dream a Dream — Bangalore, India
Partners for Youth Empowerment — Seattle,
USA
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Dream a Dream is building a movement
to equip millions of young people from
vulnerable backgrounds with Life Skills to
overcome adversity and thrive in the 21st
century. Dream a Dream has a 3-pronged
strategy, to empower young people with
critical life skills.
1) Two direct intervention programmes run
as innovation labs: The After School Life Skills
Programme (ASLSP) and the Career Connect
Programme (CCP). The ASLSP engages over
5,000 students each year in schools across
Bangalore where facilitators host weekly
after-school sessions developing life skills
using sports and arts. Though the young
people learn football and creative arts, facil-
itators utilize these mediums to develop life
skills. Sessions focus on teamwork, managing
emotions, problem solving, overcoming diffi-
culties, and leadership, among other skills.
2) Dream a Dream has codified the Life
Skills Approach and replicated it through the
Teacher Development Programme (TDP),
which is specifically aimed at enabling
educators to empower young people with
life skills. The strategy is to transform the
environment around the child, with the
teacher being the key influencer. When a
teacher, a key influencer in the young person’s
life, plays the role of a caring and compas-
sionate adult, children engage actively

in learning, they feel inspired, and they
transform.
3) Transforming the ecosystem by investing
in a) Evidence building through research, b)
Building a collaborative impact network to
create an urgent, larger and louder voice
pushing for ‘Re-imagining Education’ and c)
Transforming government systems. a) Our
research publications can be accessed on our
website which include an academic paper on
the Life Skills Assessment Scale, Mapping
Life Skills in India Report, A white paper
for OECD (Unpublished), Project Thrive and
further research underway in 2019. b) We
are creating a collaborative impact network
and building urgency by hosting an annual
conference, called Change the Script (CTS)
for the past five years. In this conference we
bring together diverse stakeholders, gain a
deeper understanding of the adversity, and
explore a range of solutions and approaches
by global organizations. The conference is
a great platform for learning, sharing and
understanding. c) Partnership with Delhi
Government to introduce the Happiness
Curriculum in 1,024 Delhi Government
Schools, impacting over 1 million students.
Dream a Dream is the primary anchor organi-
zation in the design, coordination, training
and implementation of the curriculum.
Contact: Vishal Talreja vishal@
dreamadream.org
https://www.facebook.com/vishal.talreja
https://twitter.com/vishaltalreja
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vtalreja/
www.dreamadream.org
Educatiooon 3000
What does your organisation/s do:
We are co-creating a Comprehensive Multi-
cultural Education that promotes Culture of
Peace and Solidarity, it is time to transform
Education worldwide. We form an organic
grassroots team of enthusiastic individuals
and non-profit organizations, we are a group
of volunteers, mainly teachers, parents, youth,
Appendix
health and education professionals, from more
than 50 countries, We invite everybody to be part
of this extraordinary journey, generating inner
and outer changes, elevating our consciousness
and manifesting transformation in Education.
Where are they based: Andorra, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Belgium, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba,
China, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt,
Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Greece, France,
Finland, India, Italy, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya,
Lebanon, Morocco, Mexico, Nepal, New
Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Romania,
Russia, Syria, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa,
Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Venezuela, the United
Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), the United
Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Educatiooon 3000 unites and empowers
educators from South America, Middle East, Asia,
and the rest of the world to embrace holistic
learning and work ecosystemically. In particular,
its work in Bolivia and Latin America connects
new pedagogies, new curriculum, and new archi-
tecture to establish networks of learners and
teachers for the 21st century learning.
Contact: Noemi Paymal: noemi.paymal.
foundation@gmail.com, https://www.educa-
tiooon3000.info/
Enrol Yourself
What does your organisation/s do: Enrol
Yourself equips 21st Century adults to grow
themselves, together. We reimagine lifelong
learning through the Learning Marathon, our
6 month peer-led learning accelerator. We
train local hosts who initiate and facilitate the
Learning Marathon where they are. We also
partner with organisations to deliver learning
experiences and tackle learning and development
challenges.
Where are they based: Our HQ is in London,
but we’ve launched the Learning Marathon in
Birmingham and Bristol. Edinburgh and Sofia are
next.
How is this organization ecosystemic:
We operate in a decentralised way, training our
139
Appendix
hosts in our method, giving them access to
our toolkit and resources, then supporting
them to take the responsibility and autonomy
to start things up in their local area. Peer-led
learning relies on ecosystemic principles
because there is no one teacher that provides
information and participants have to learn
to navigate the resources of the peer group.
We have also started to partner with other
organisations to use our experience and
resources to underpin learning experiences
that they wish to initiate or host. We wish to
empower facilitators, coaches, educators and
people organizers to be able to host learning
journeys where they are. In other words we
want to give life to a ‘grow your own’ lifelong
learning system where power is far more
distributed and the system as a whole is
therefore far more responsive and emergent.
In this way we might have a system better
suited to the rapid changes that are being
brought and will continue to be brought this
century.
Contact: Zahra Davidson www.enrolyourself.
com / twitter: @EnrolYourself / insta: @
enrol_yourself
EVOLving Leadership; World
Academy of Arts and Science
What does your organisation/s do:
EVOLving Leadership maximizes the potential
of individuals, businesses and communities
for superior performance and return on
conscious contribution (ROC). We are ushering
a new era of business and social leadership.
Developing an understanding of global social
evolution and the various forms of leadership
needed to accelerate progress in all fields of
society. Currently developing and modelling
Global Leadership in the 21st Century in
collaboration with UN Office in Geneva.
Where are they based: USA/Globally
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
EVOLving Leadership embraces ecosystemic
philosophy of empowered learning and works
140
to create holistic learning experiences for
leaders of all types.
Contact: Mila Popovich
Fair Education Alliance;
International Cultural Youth
Exchange
What does your organisation/s do: The
Fair Education Alliance is a coalition of over
100 organisations working together to drive
lasting change at a local and national level.
We monitor the gap between the most disad-
vantaged children and their wealthier peers,
and use our collective voice and resources to
end educational inequality. Our vision is of
an education system where no child’s educa-
tional success is limited by their socio-eco-
nomic background. This is a world where
disadvantage no longer determines literacy
and numeracy rates at primary school,
GCSE attainment at secondary school, the
emotional wellbeing and resilience of young
people, participation in further education, or
university graduation.
Inter-Cultural Youth Exchange (ICYE UK) is
an international volunteering charity working
in the field of intercultural learning and youth
development. Established in 1993, we work
with a network of local partners to organize
overseas NGO placements throughout Latin
America, Africa, Asia and Europe. We also
arrange provide placements in the UK for
international volunteers to support local
charities here, meaning ours is a truly unique
cultural exchange!
Where are they based: UK
How is this organization ecosystemic:
The reasons for this educational inequality
are not simple, and lie in an intricate web
of social issues. Addressing such complex
problems will take more than one institution,
one organisation, or even one government.
We believe that by working together, learning
from each other, sharing evidence and
amplifying our efforts through our networks
we can drive change more quickly. We have
built a multistakeholder alliance, made up of

businesses, charities, and educational bodies
from across the country, each of whom has
signed up to work towards achieving the five
Fair Education Impact Goals, which follow
the educational journey of a child from
primary school through to higher education
and employment. We work together to tackle
educational inequality at a local and national
level. We monitor the gap between the most
disadvantaged children and their wealthier
peers, and use our collective voice and
resources to end educational inequality
Contact: Executive Director, Gina Cicerone
and CEO, Sam Butters gcicerone@fairedu-
cation.org.uk, https://www.faireducation.org.
uk/
Forum for the Future
What does your organisation/s do:
Forum for the Future takes a systems
approach to complex sustainability
challenges. We do this by convening transfor-
mational collaborations to drive change, by
partnering with organisations to help them
lead by example, and by building a global
community of pioneers and change makers.
Where are they based: London, UK
How is this organization ecosys-
temic: Forum specialises in taking a systems
approach, understanding that the challenges
we are facing are complex, interconnected
and constantly changing. This means we help
individuals and organisations understand
their role in creating change in the systems
they operate within, and seek to build collabo-
ration between different actors in any system,
working off the assumption that no single
organisation has a monopoly on the truth and
it is therefore critical to understand different
perspectives to work together towards
change.
Contact: https://www.forumforthefuture.org
@Forum4theFuture
Appendix
Fundació Jaume Bofill
What does your organisation/s do: A
funding think & do tank focused on educa-
tional next challenges. We develop research,
programs and coalitions to achieve best
educational policies and practices to reach
equity & quality education for all. We are
based in Barcelona and focused in our
country but working in partnerships and
networks worldwide. For 20 years, I have
been creating, managing, assessing and
leading community-based innovative social
programs for children & families rights:
school achievement, community inclusion,
training and work inclusion, migrant people.
Board member in several foundations related
to third-sector research and social inclusion
networks.
Where are they based: Catalonia, Spain
How is this organization ecosystemic:
Our foundation used to be a social and
community funder and at the same time a
strong research and policy-advice think tank
in many social and educational issues in our
country. We develop policy advice, research,
programs and multistakeholder coalitions to
improve educational policies and practices
that overcome inequalities. We have realized
that inspiring new horizons, research and
policy advice doesn’t drive innovation by
itself. In recent years, we have been moving
our approach from education reform to
ecosystem innovation , more committed with
change and focused on a few big challenges.
We have moved towards innovation, system
transformation and focusing on a few
short-term (3-5 years) and mid-long term
educational challenges to make a bolder
impact. We ask ourselves about how could we
catalyze and support an innovation ecosystem
in our country. We are now working in this
new strategy: connecting leaders, change-
makers and innovators, identifying and
scaling programs, creating alliances and
platforms to build and catalyze ecosystems
and spread and share innovation, empower
the emerging generation of activists, leaders
141
Appendix
and changemakers with skills and tools,
driving advocacy campaigns that engage
activists with new challenges.
Contact: Ismael Palacín, https://www.fbofill.
cat/ @ismaelpalacin
Fundación Mi Sangre
What does your organisation/s do:
Fundación Mi Sangre’s purpose is to activate
ecosystems and develop capacities in order
to allow new generations to be protago-
nists in the creation of a culture of peace in
Colombia.
Where are they based: Medellín,
Colombia.
How is this organization ecosystemic:
FMS’s work is based on a systemic approach
at multiple levels (see picture attached): At
the first level, We aim to foster individual
changes working with children and youth
at risk, with the participation of principals,
teachers and families. This is typically
done in school settings (formal education
systems). At the second level, we aim to
bring about community changes with youth
at risk, this is done by developing their life
skills and sparking in them the interest to be
community leaders and build peace in their
territories. At the third level, we search for
changes in society, with young people who are
leading peacebuilding initiatives to mobilize
others and influence the public agenda, and
we connect them with other youth leaders
who are mobilizing and impacting their
communities through the REDAcción de
Paz, a national network of young peace-
builders. Lastly, at the fourth level, we aim
to bring about changes systemic changes by
aligning and fostering collaborations with
other public and private agents (NGOS, local
government, private companies, academia,
community based organizations, media, and
other partners who in one way or another
influence the experience of young people. It
is important to mention that although we
142
have specific projects in this level such as
the Medellín social , this also runs through
all the other levels of intervention, as we
continuously connect children and youth with
relevant actors in their ecosystems.
Contact: Catalina Cockduque: ccock@funda-
cionmisangre.org www.misangre.org
instagram: @fmisangre facebook/misangre-
fundacion twitter/fmisangre—
Fundacion TAAP, Aid Live
Foundation, Ashoka
What does your organisation/s do:
Fundacion TAAP uses the arts, educational
innovation and learning through games to
promote more peaceful environments for
families, schools and communities in Latin
America and the world, such as Chile, Mexico,
Uruguay, the United States, United Kingdom,
France and Qatar.
Aid Live is an organization formed by a group
of social development specialists with more
than 10 years of experience working with
communities in Venezuela and Colombia, who
will be responsible for ensuring the proper use
of resources and the impact of projects such
as Venezuela Live Aid.
Where are they based: Colombia
How is this organisation ecosys-
temic?: We connect and stimulate a range
of stakeholders, children, parents and the
wider community to change how they think
about violence and come up with communal
solutions to eradicate it. The approach is
transdisciplinary, rooted in neuroscience,
art, pedagogy, development communication
and learning through play and art and
personal development is just as important
as the community response to local and
global needs. TAAP also delivers training
programmes to governments, companies
and NGOs. These are designed to help these
actors promote the use of creative problem-
solving, empathy and localised strategies
to reduce violence in their communities.
We actively promote learning ecosystems

through:training of social leaders, devel-
opment and management of public and
private projects, formulation of public policies
and co-creation of projects with international
networks of social and educational.
Contact: Gaby Arenas de Meneses, https://
venezuelaaidlive.com/, https://fundaciontaap.
com/en/home/
ImagiNation Afrika
What does your organisation/s do:
Works for the development of the whole child
by creating child-centered public spaces,
partnering with institutions that nourish child
development and by accompanying parents
and communities, ultimately building an
ecosystem that allows children to thrive and
lead in the 21st century.
Where are they based: Senegal, Africa
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
We work across different actors in the
ecosystem surrounding children in particular:
journalists, educational institutions, health
workers, parents and municipal government
to weave a better ecosystem for children 0-5.
Contact: Karima Grant: imaginationafrika.
org; karima@imaginationafrika.org,
Innovation Unit
What does your organisation/s do:
Innovation Unit is a social enterprise based
in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. We
work internationally, applying disciplined
approaches to develop new solutions and
create impact at scale. We are outcomes and
impact focused. We work with our partners
and clients to deliver tangible and measurable
changes they, and we, want to see in the
world. Through our projects and ventures we
identify, create and scale evidence-based
solutions, mainly focused on: children’s social
care, learning & schools, healthy lives, early
Appendix
years and mental health.
Where are they based: UK, Australia, New
Zealand
How is this organisation ecosys-
temic?: Supporting evolution of the learning
ecosystem through original research and
program development.
Contact: Valerie Hannon https://www.
innovationunit.org/
KnowledgeWorks
What does your organisation/s do:
KnowledgeWorks helps co-create the future
of learning alongside education stakeholders
by exploring the future of learning; growing
educator impact by helping schools and
school districts transition to personalized,
competency-based learning; partnering with
state and federal policymakers to align policy
in support of that approach to learning; and
creating an evidence-base for student-cen-
tered learning.
Where are they based: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Through its strategic foresight work, Knowl-
edgeWorks has since 2009 explored possi-
bilities for education systems to transition
toward vibrant learning ecosystems that
enable all learners to thrive. Through its
integrated body of work, KnowledgeWorks
aims to catalyze sustainable, systemic change
in 7 states, transforming learning environ-
ments and outcomes for one million students
by 2025.
Contact: Katherine Price: knowledge-
works.org, princek@knowledgeworks.org, @
katprince, @knowledgeworks, https://www.
linkedin.com/in/katherineprince/, https://www.
linkedin.com/company/knowledgeworks-/,
https://www.facebook.com/KnowledgeWorks.
org/
143
Appendix
LearnLife
What does your organisation/s do:
Learnlife are building an open ecosystem for
a new lifelong learning paradigm alongside
existing education systems. Research was
undertaken that looked at many highly
regarded ‘best practice’ examples of
innovative schools from around the world.
In collaboration with thought leaders for
learning, we are developing new learning
elements, learning spaces and learning
technologies that are responsive to the
inspirations, needs, and challenges of today’s
children and future generations to come.
Where are they based: Barcelona, Spain,
expanding to Germany and Africa
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
We are building an open ecosystem for a new
lifelong learning paradigm alongside existing
education systems.Research was undertaken
that looked at many highly regarded ‘best
practice’ examples of innovative schools
from around the world. In collaboration with
thought leaders for learning, we are devel-
oping new learning elements, learning spaces
and learning technologies that are responsive
to the inspirations, needs, and challenges of
today’s children and future generations to
come.
Contact: Stephen Harris, http://stephen-
harris.me/ https://learnlife.com/ @stephen_h
@wearelearnlife
LenPoligrafMash
What does your organisation/s do:
LenPoligrafMash’s focus is on young people
interested in technology and entrepre-
neurship, and aims to create first-hand experi-
ences for school children, university students,
and young adults that will allow them to take
action and create technologies based on real
world challenges. They collaborate with extra
curricular education providers and universities
who use the co-working space for government
endorsed STEM competitions and hackathons
that tackle real-world challenges. Events like
144
this provide students with the opportunity
to collaborate with one another on a shared
ground.
Where are they based: St.Petersburg,
Russia
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
LenPoligrafMash (LPM) is mostly used as
a whole-system prototype to connect
innovators in engineering, academia, and
businesses, including incubators. The long
term goal is to create an ecosystem that
transforms and raises interested students
who have used the space into entrepreneurial
experts and teams who create educational
projects for aspiring STEM students.
Contact: Kirill Soloveychik
Lego Foundation
What does your organisation/s do:
The LEGO Foundation aims to build a future
in which learning through play empowers
children to become creative, engaged, lifelong
learners.
Where are they based: Denmark
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
The LEGO Foundation aims to build a future
in which learning through play empowers
children to become creative, engaged, lifelong
learners. They support programs and create
original research which enables the devel-
opment of learning ecosystems.
Contact: Halima Begum https://www.
legofoundation.com/en/
Metta-Learning project of
Vivir Agradecidos; Laszlo
Institute for New Paradigm
Research; EARTHwise Centre;
University of the Planet/Global
Education Futures
What does your organisation/s do:
1. Design and implementation of an Evolu-
tionary Learning Ecosystem as part of the
Metta-Learning project of Vivir Agradecido
based in Argentina. 2. Creation of a praxis

framework on New Education Paradigms as
part of R&D+i work at the Laszlo Institute
for New Paradigm Research based in Italy. 3.
Design and delivery of Thrivability Education
programmatic offerings as part of the
EARTHwise Centre based in Mauritius. 4.
Design of the University for the Planet (U4P)
as part of the Global Education Futures (GEF)
initiative based in Russia.
Where are they based: see above.
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Focusing on the Metta-Learning project, we
seek to cultivate wellbeing in educational
institutions through the application of new
knowledge (mainly from the neurosciences)
and the rediscovery of timeless wisdoms for
how these institutions of learning function
in relation to themselves and others. By
working in them and together with them, we
promote the development of higher human
capacities that lead their members to live
in greater harmony and balance. We do this
through an interactive process that cultivates
wellbeing in educational institutions. Our
work helps the adults in them to unfold their
highest human capacities (such as presence,
compassion, perspective, gratitude and trust
in life). We accomplish this task by offering
content in partnership with other members of
the Learning Ecosystem, and by developing
institutional processes that promote a culture
that supports human dignity entitlement in
schools.
Contact: Alexander Laszlo https://
ecosistema.metta-aprendizaje.com/; https://
www.laszloinstitute.com/; https://www.earth-
wisecentre.org/; info@mettaaprendizaje.com
Metaversity
What does your organisation/s do:
Metaversitism is both a specific organi-
zation and a principle of organization. For
the organization to be an ecosystemic
“metaversity”, three principles are used to
implement in its work: micro-competen-
cy-based approach, holistic development,
Appendix
systems thinking and systems education. To
enable this we conduct educational events
and courses, create and conduct games - 
http://edupr.ru/igry, train teachers in holistic
development http://edupr.ru/ped and support
the activities of the community — the
educational ecosystem, for this we carry out
Warehouses of Uma http://edupr.ru/sklad_
uma, cooperate with business, universities,
NGOs and participate in international cooper-
ation. We also have a short online ‘navigator’
course to help people identify their learning
needs and what they need to get there.
Where are they based: St Petersburg,
Russia
How is this organisation ecosys-
temic?: The fields of activity work at three
levels: communities, a pedagogical base of
education for all and educational ecosystems.
Metaversity is a complex combination of
various educational projects, individuals,
organizations with an educational component,
which generally give a systemic effect on
education, while not being something created
by a directive.
Contact: Oleg Muromtsev & Alena Surikova,
http://ishipo.ru/main
New Model in Technology and
Engineering
What does your organisation/s do:
NMiTE — New Model in Technology and
Engineering — is an initiative backed by
government, educators, and industry, to
transform engineering education in Britain.
Located in Hereford, NMiTE aims to secure
university status and become Britain’s first
wholly new, purpose built UK university in 40
years.The NMiTE project is crucial to Britain’s
future. Engineers are key to mastering major
world challenges — from sustainable food
production to cybersecurity to Artificial Intel-
ligence and more — but the UK is critically
short of them.
Where are they based: Herefordshire, UK
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
145
Appendix
Talking a multistakeholder approach to devel-
oping technology and engineering linked to
real-world transdisciplinary challenges.
Contact: Michael Stevenson, https://nmite.
ac.uk/
OpEPA
What does your organisation/s do:
OpEPA works in three main areas (education,
communication for regeneration and public
policy advocacy) that seek to contribute to
the construction of a society connected to the
Earth, which can access and appropriate use
of knowledge, tools and actions that reduce
human impact on the planet and forge a
regenerative and participatory model of daily
action.
Where are they based: Colombia
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
OpEPA’s approach to nature-based education
follows regenerative and life system
principles weaving non-conventional actors
and learning environments into learning
experiences that foster ecosystemic and
regenerative mindsets based on interde-
pendence and Interrelations (within living
systems) and the re-establishment of healthy
relations with one self, others and nature.
Contact: Luis Camargo https://opepa.org/,
luis@opepa.org, @opepa
PEDAL (Centre for Research
on Play in Education, Devel-
opment & Learning)/University
of Wollogong
What does your organisation/s do: Our
mission is to conduct academic research into
the role of play in young children’s lives and
to inform wider practice and policy. PEDAL
is located in the University of Cambridge’s
Faculty of Education, and was launched in
October 2015 with funding from the LEGO
Foundation. PEDAL is part of the Psychology,
Education and Learning Studies Research
Group at the Faculty.
146
Where are they based: UK/Australia
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Creating and supporting research in the
development of the learning ecosystem.
Contact: Natalie Day: natalieday4@gmail.
com, https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/
pedal/, https://www.uow.edu.au/
Play Verto and Bite the Ballot
What does your organisation/s do:
Play Verto is a holistic approach to data led
decision making. Using play as a catalyst
for community engagement we are able to
collate rich insights on what the community
think and feel related to key issues. The
crucial element is the data — we ensure it
goes back into the hands of the community
so they can become active and engaged at a
grassroots level but we share the data with
decision makers to drive the conversation
and add pressure to key outcomes needed
systemic change.
Where are they based: UK and Portugal
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Play is a great way to bridge gaps in tradi-
tional hierarchies and data is incredibly
difficult to ignore if all voices are activated
to participate. Identifying key issues and
solutions from wider society and supporting
them to build capacity and drive local change
is one key factor. The other is ensuring
data is flowing through the key design
makers and institutions so that they act
on taking root causes to issues highlighted
by the community. I do this in a variety of
ways — both social entrepreneurial and
intrapreneurial — Weaving key elements of
the specific ecosystem to ensure greater
accountability, more diverse engagement and
collective decision making.
Contact: Michael Sani, @michaelsani www.
playverto.com

Redes De Tutoria
What does your organisation/s do:
Over the past 20 years, Redes de Tutoría has
sought to transform students and teachers
by developing tutorial relationships and
harnessing the power of one to one dialogue.
The Redes de Tutoría approach moves
away from the traditional classroom where
a teacher delivers standard content for all
students to work through at exactly the same
pace. They intentionally involve multiple
stakeholders in the community-centric
process, such as the government, teacher,
student, parent levels to ensure this benefits
all.
Where are they based: Mexico, Singapore,
USA, Thailand
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
The process can and only does proceed by
the inner thrust of empowered teachers and
students –their parents included—and, in
parallel, by the good judgment and perceived
benefit of enlightened politicians and admin-
istrators.
Contact: Gabriel Camara: gcamara45@
gmail.com, https://redesdetutoria.com/,
contacto@redesdetutoria.com
Royal Society for the Encour-
agement of Arts, Manufac-
tures and Commerce (RSA)
What does your organisation/s do:
Think tank and social change organisation
Where are they based: UK, USA
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
Using research and insights to develop and
implement new ideas, around a model of
change called ‘think like a system, act like
an entrepreneur’. Cities of Learning is the
first whole place, whole system (ecosystem)
programme.
Contact: Rosie Clayton @RosieClayton @
thersaorg www.thersa.org
Appendix
Social Innovation Institute
What does your organisation/s do: The
Social Innovation Institute support’s practitioners
and community changemakers to address the
root causes of systems-level problems by devel-
oping new skills and ideas, making stronger
connections, exploring and creating learning and
impact pathways. Building on core competencies
central to doing this work, we focus on culture
building, understanding systems, collaboration
and storytelling for people and planet.
Where are they based: Canada
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
One of our premier initiatives is the collabo-
rative national development of Social Innovation
Canada, an ecosystem of social innovation
and systems change practitioners organized
regionally who share the common purpose of
advancing learning and impact in their commu-
nities, regions, and across the country. The
primary function of the ecosystem is to support
practitioners to wayfind, build capacity, and align
for action.
Contact: Joshua Cubista, Dean
joshua@socialinnovation.ca
https://socialinnovationinstitute.org/
Universidad del Medio Ambiente
(UMA -University of the
Environment)
What does your organisation/s do: UMA
was founded in 2009 in Valle de Bravo, Mexico,
as the first university campus in Latin America
specializing in socioenvironmental studies in
diverse disciplines and offering a project-based
education specially designed for collective-change
agents. Our purpose is to form learning commu-
nities able to foster personal and socioenviron-
mental regeneration through codesigned projects
that focus on bringing forth potential.
UMA currently offers seven master degrees
(sustainable architecture, green MBA, environ-
mental law, sustainable tourism, agroecology,
socioenvironmental projects and education for
sustainability) and is developing bachelor and
doctorate degrees. Our programs have an inter-
disciplinary, systemic and pragmatic vision based
147
Appendix
on a biocultural ethic. We explore autonomous
learning processes based on experiences,
outdoor exploration, collective intelligence,
personal development, action research and
critical scientific thinking.
Where are they based: Mexico
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
UMA is a diverse community of Spanish-
speaking collective-change agents from
Mexico and Latin America that are inter-
ested in bringing forth socioenvironmental
regeneration and that come from an array of
professions, ages, cultures, ideologies, and
socioeconomic conditions. UMA endeavors to
set conducive conditions for students to form
learning communities that bridge diversity
towards a common purpose. This is explored
both at the level of the university as a
learning community for sustainability, as well
as in the project process followed by students,
where diverse key stakeholders are brought
together in a systemic codesign context.
Contact: Victoria Haro vhs@umamexico.
com.mx, https://umamexico.com/ @
umamexico
Unearthed
What does your organisation/s do:
Unearthed focuses on ecosystemic Coaching,
Facilitation and workshop design
Where are they based: USA
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
We work with organizations and institutions
that are trying to build global communities
and to do so we follow ecosystemic principles
Contact: Romina Faulb (previously Ashoka)
rominafaulb@gmail.com; https://www.
unearthedllc.com/
WISE
What does your organisation/s do:
WISE is an international, multi-sectoral
platform for creative thinking, debate and
purposeful action. WISE has established itself
as a global reference in new approaches to
education. Through both, the biennial Summit
148
and a range of ongoing programs WISE is
promoting innovation and building the future
of education through collaboration.
Where are they based: Doha, Qatar
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
We take a multistakeholder approach by
bringing in conversation to many different
sectors and have 100+ nationalities present
at the WISE event. We also create intentional
learning loops between programs, research,
and advocacy.
Contact: Zineb Mouhyi https://www.
wise-qatar.org/ twitter: @wise_tweets
instagram: @wiseqatar
World Academy of Arts and
Science, (+ many more here)
What does your organisation/s do: The
World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) is
an international non-governmental scientific
organization, a world network of individual
fellows elected for distinguished accom-
plishments in the fields of natural and social
sciences, arts and humanities. The Academy
strives to promote the growth of knowledge,
enhance public awareness of the social
consequences and policy implications of that
growth, and provide leadership in thought
that leads to action.
Where are they based: International
How is this organisation ecosystemic?:
The Academy serves as a forum for reflective
scientists, artists, and scholars dedicated
to addressing the pressing challenges
confronting humanity today independent
of political boundaries or limits, whether
spiritual or physical — a forum where these
problems can be discussed objectively,
scientifically, globally, and free from vested
interests or regional attachments to arrive at
solutions that affirm universal human rights
and serve the common good of all humanity.
WAAS is founded on faith in the power of
original and creative ideas — Real Ideas with
effective power — to change the world.
Contact: Garry Jacobs, http://www.
worldacademy.org/

Appendix 2.
Tools
2.1 PPP Mapping
This learning ecosystem mapping tool is for
anyone who wants to understand, explore
and visualize their learning ecosystem. It’s an
exercise to support you in mapping you current
personal learning practices, how you learn
within and from place, as well as how you are
learning to support current planetary needs
and crisis. This process helps you to identify
your current state as a learning being in this
universe and the interconnection between the
personal, place and planetary levels and can be
applied to an individual, team or organization.
What is a learning ecosystem
map?
A learning ecosystem map illustrates the
different approaches and current practices
of learning in your learning ecosystem, as
well as how these different practices inform
each other. It consists of all the elements of
your learning experiences, and how you serve
yourself, other people, communities and the
planet by doing so.
Your learning experiences are made up of
aspects such as: self taught knowledge based
approaches (e.g. reading/online courses), social
learning (e.g. feedback at work, from friends,
through community, coaching, mentorship),
project-based (e.g. work or personal related,
such as research, crafting, building a bike etc.),
classes, events and workshops (e.g. dance,
language), artistic, wellbeing and spiritual
practices (e.g. journalling, meditation, prayer,
poetry).
Appendix
A learning ecosystem map
can be used to:
> Collaborate directly with other stakeholders for
your own personal, organizational, community or
planetary change
> Explore new approaches or sources of learning
to improve personal, organizational, community or
planetary based needs
> Identify where changes are needed, and what
effects they might have
Why use this tool?
Creating a learning ecosystem map helps you
to understand how learning serves yourself,
your local place and the wider planet. It also
helps you identify the ways you learn, the
types of approaches you take and the inter-
connection and relationships between them.
You can use your map as a practical tool to
visualise your learning ecosystem to explore
new possibilities, make sense of what you
currently like to learn or focus on learning
and why, as well as show emerging ways you
could increase or share the value of particular
aspects of your learning ecosystem.
The mapping process prompts you to consider
different ways of learning, relationships,
areas of interest and ideas in your learning
ecosystem, and can generate useful sensem-
aking for ranging from your own personal care
to learning differently at work or with peers, as
well as how you can support your own under-
standing of our wider planetary needs.
149
Appendix

How to use this tool

You could also recreate your map using
Materials mapping visualisation software, such as Kumu.
You will need a large sheet of paper (ideally
A1 size) or a whiteboard. Use sticky notes and Map your personal learning.
coloured pencils or pens. Map your place-based learning.
Map your planetary learning.
Method E.g An individual’s learning ecosystem
Using the instructions draw your map onto
your paper or whiteboard. You can either work
on your own, or in a group with other actors in
your learning ecosystem. It may be useful to
use a workshop setting with a facilitator.

Dependent on the focus of your learning

ecosystem map it may take between 15
minutes and two hours to draft the ecosystem
map. If it is a large group across an organization
you may need to gather two or three rounds of
feedback afterwards to ensure a shared under-
standing of the learning ecosystem. Once you
are happy with your draft map, take a
photograph for reference. An example of an ecosystem
mapping.
Before beginning this exercise it is recom-
What next? mended that you spend some time exploring
You can use your learning ecosystem map to and thinking about the ways you learn before
communicate your current understanding of organising into these themes to create a map.
how and where you learn to serve and in service
with yourself, your place and the planet. Alter- 1. Map your personal learning ecosystem
natively, at the level of your organization, your (ways you learn to support your thrivability)
place, and the planet.
2. Map your place-based learning ecosystems
You could repeat the experiment, especially (ways you learn in your locality for thriv-
as the personal level, on a monthly basis to ability)
explore how paying attention to your learning
ecosystem can help you understand how you 3. Map your planetary learning ecosystem
learn and what you might want to learn next, (ways you learn to support the planet’s
as well as connecting with your community. thrivability).

Developing the map will reveal where the 4. Draw arrows between the relationships
different levels of your learning ecosystem where there is clear overlap across the
could evolve and will help to communicate ecosystems to notice the interconnection
these opportunities. you have.

You can also photograph your map and share An organization’s learning ecosystem
it on social media using #LearningEcosys-
temMap.
150

2.2 CORE Mapping
1. Map your strengths in each section using
the Learning Ecosystem poster of the table
in section 3.2. Map the strongest around
towards the centre of the mid point. You
could use one colour of post stick notes to
do so.
2. Now map your weaknesses or hindrances
in each box, you can map the hindrances
around the edge to form a second layer.
You could use a second colour of post stick
notes to do so.
Culture
- governance
Values that drive project
+
+
Resources
Funding, infrastructure,
tools - and learning are organised?
Appendix
3. Use this process to identify how you might
go about improving each aspect and set
intentions of how you might overcome each
one. You could then identify if the blockage
requires the roles of gardening or weaving
leadership to guide your development.
The question to what extent is intended to lead
you to reflect on either the success/enabler
or current weakness/hindrance each element
plays in your ecosystem development.
Organization /
Who and how makes decisions
whithin organization and larger
network
Execution
How work, collaboration, discussion
151
Appendix
Guiding questions for Culture
Map the words in bold
To what extent do you have a strong set of
co-created practices that embody your
values & norms through elements such as
evolving guiding principles, visions and shared
language?
To what extent do you have a have rituals
and rhythms to develop bonding and trust?
To what extent do you have authentic multi
stakeholder relationships within and across
the community from parents to businesses,
governance to nature?
To what extent do you make time and space
to prioritise personal and collective
wellbeing?
Have you cultivate interconnected and inter-
dependent relationships at the in person
and technological levels?
To what extent do you work in an
environment that enhances culture, paying
attention to elements such as space, lighting,
sustainability and design?
To what extent does your space and
environment that deeply consider the
intended experience/s and project, paying
attention to elements such as design, space,
nature, light, sound, smell? This is especially
important for non-neurotypicals.
To what extent do you use engaging story-
telling that collaboratively reshapes narra-
tives around emerging ecosystems and
societal change?
152
Guiding questions for Organi-
zational Principles
Map the words in bold
To what extent are you mindful of localised
contexts serving community, place-based
needs?
To what extent do your governance struc-
tures demonstrate distributed leadership,
modelling values and inviting criticism?
To what extent do you foster personal agency
and opportunities for learning experiences
and development?
To what extent do you catalyze and nourish
emerging ecosystemic dynamics toward
evolution, adaption, resilience, diversity,
mutually beneficial relationship and cyclical
approaches?
Guiding questions for
Resources
Map the words in bold
To what extent do you have long-term,
value based funding from multiple stake-
holders to ensure longevity?
To what extent do you have inclusive and
diverse teams where possible regarding
skills, gender, race, culture etc.?
To what extent do you use tools and
equipment that are sustainable and
regenerative, treading as lightly on
the earth as possible in regards to their
footprints?
To what extent do you use technology to
increase connection, not disconnection?
 Appendix

To what extent do you ensure their are

Guiding questions for feedback loops on research and
Execution processes, ensure that all feel heard and
Map the words in bold have the space to safely share their concerns?

To what extent do you approach planning
and design based on the emerging
principles of learning ecosystems to
include mapping your actual and possible
partners with approaches such as constel-
lation mapping and tools such as group map,
mural, miro and kumu?
To what extent do you increase visibility
and promote the journey of your
ecosystem so others can learn from you,
support you and celebrate your successes?
This could look like online webinars to
workshops to online media.

To what extent do you cultivate the conver-

sation between leaders in your area, or your
sector, on how to become more ecosystemi-
cally oriented?

To what extent do you prototype your

own ecosystem acceleration processes and
projects?

To what extent do you foster ecosystemic

facilitation through collective collaboration
through play, trust building exercises, encour-
aging decision making, open mindedness and
innovation?

To what extent do you ensure there are clear

roles even though they may span different
elements?

To what extent do you create neutral spaces

for multiple stakeholders to evolve together?

To what extent do you incorporate research

and analysis in the way that best makes
sense for your ecosystem project dependent
on its stage? This could look like participatory
action research or an in-depth ‘academic’
longitudinal study.

153
Photos used in this report are taken by the authors from
the https://unsplash.com/
@emmagossett @unstable_affliction @ggiqueaux
@joey_csunyo @acharki95
@hellocolor @dnevozhai @markusspiske @antogabb
@reiseuhu @timmossholder @victor_g @terminath0r
@curioso @cappilot @dinoreichmuth @guillepozzi
@benxcurry @garciasaldana_ @chuttersnap @upmanis
@drmakete
Progressive education, as the practice
of freedom, enables us to confront
feelings of loss and restore our sense of
connection. It teaches us how to create
community

bell hooks
learningecosystems2020.globaledufutures.org